


Moving Day

by katrinawritesthings



Series: Moving Day au [1]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual, Brotp, Fluff, M/M, Multi, NB, Nonbinary, Other, Polyamory, Trans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-22 01:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10687044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: so like,,, au where taemin’s parents are garbage but they leave for the weekend so he calls the babes to help him move out in secret“Are you really sure you’re ready for this, Taemin?” Jonghyun asks.“No,” Taemin says quietly. Jinki watches Jonghyun’s fingers curl into his shirt, his silent intake of breath. Taemin shakes his head and rubs his palms into his eyes. “But I’ve wanted to do this since I was eighteen. Since before that. And I haven’t had a chance like this in five years. And who knows when the next one will come up. Ready or not, this has to be it.” His voice shakes as he speaks, like he hasn’t even fully convinced himself of this point.Which, Jinki guesses, kind of is the point. He’s called them to help him move out several times before, but called all of them off not too soon after. Not enough time, he wasn’t ready physically, he wasn’t ready mentally. Jinki isn’t sure that with his anxiety he’d ever be able to feel fully ready anyway. He thinks it’s less about being ready and more about being able.And right now, they're definitely able to do this.tumblr





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> when i say ontae i mean this has jongtae jongyu jongho taekey and minkey but it's About ontae  
> also **tw for mentions of abusive parents and taemin’s super anxiety**

“No, it was like. You know those videos of people giving their babies lemons, and they make that face, and like, shake their little baby heads?”

“Oh. Yeah, yeah.”

“That’s what he looked like, like, right over me, and I just. Laughed so hard, and lost my entire high, like, _while_ he was still inside of me, fully orgasming, and then, like. I didn’t get his number.”

“Wow,” Jinki breathes.

“Yeah,” Jonghyun breathes back. His shoulders scrunch with a little burst of giggles before he runs his fingers through his brown hair and straightens back up. “I feel kinda bad, like, he couldn’t control that, but it was just so sudden, and.” He shrugs. Jinki shrugs back, shaking his head. Holy shit. Jonghyun said it would be a doozy of a story. He leans over the toaster to peer in and see if his toast is ready; it’s not, so he sighs and leans against the counter. They need a new one. “But anyway,” Jonghyun says. “That was my morning.” He sips his banana smoothie with another shrug. A soft chuckle slips from Jinki’s lips at the simplicity of that.

“Alright then,” he says. His toast pops out of the toaster; he takes it out, frowns at it, flips both pieces over, and puts them back in for more even coverage. “Was he good, like, before that, though?” he asks. “Like, before the O-face.” This is important information. Jonghyun hums, leans back in his chair, puffs up his lips at the ceiling.

“I mean, yeah, I think so,” he says. “I was enjoying it.” He stirs his smoothie and takes another sip before grimacing and reaching back to open the fridge behind him. He grabs the milk and pours more into the cup, stirring it in until it’s thinner. “He did this thing when he was fingering me, like, really twisty and--oh, wait.” He pauses in his story and just feels up his left boob. Jinki frowns, confused, before Jonghyun pulls out his phone from the chest pocket. Oh.

He turns to check his toast again to hide his giggles as Jonghyun answers the call.

“Yes, hello, my lovely and stunning and wonderful little cabbage patch, what do--wait, what?” Jonghyun’s voice changes from dramatically romantic to shocked, and when Jinki glances up, he’s sitting up straight in his chair, frowning at the table. “Really?” he asks. “How long? I--yeah, yeah, of _course_ , baby, but--you’re really _really_ sure about it this time?” Jonghyun is half out of his chair when Jinki looks up again, grabbing a napkin to rest over his smoothie cup and stab his straw through in a makeshift cap. “Okay,” he’s saying. “Alright. We’ll be there. I love you. We’re coming.” He ends the call after that and looks at Jinki with wide eyes. “We gotta go, now,” he says, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. Jinki watches him, confused, disoriented by the sudden mood change.

“I--was that Tae?” he asks. Taemin is the only one that would get that range of emotions. Jonghyun nods.

“His parents are gone for the whole weekend,” he says, and Jinki understands. He’s in the living room looking for his jacket and keys in a heartbeat, and he’s through the door and unlocking the minivan when Jonghyun catches up to him with his arms full of flattened boxes and bags.

“Choi and Key are still both at that festival, right?” he asks as he pops the trunk.

“Yeah,” Jonghyun says, throwing the boxes back there and jogging to the passenger's seat. He has his phone out again as he clambers inside. “I’m texting them anyway. They can get there tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, good,” Jinki says, and only checks to make sure that Jonghyun has his seatbelt on before he starts the car.

They’re at Taemin’s parents’ house in twenty minutes over an hour, and Taemin is out of the front door and half falling into Jonghyun’s arms in less than ten seconds.

“Shh, hey, it’s okay,” Jonghyun says. “I’m Jonghyun. I’m here. You’re here. We’re safe. _You’re safe._ We’re alone for two more days.” Jinki recognizes Taemin’s twitchy limbs, the sharp breaths he muffles into Jonghyun’s neck, the way his hands tremble as he twists them into the back of Jonghyun’s jacket. He taps Jonghyun’s shoulder and gestures silently to the front door, letting him know that he’s going to leave the two of them alone until Taemin’s panic attack is over.

Inside, he runs his fingers through his hair and looks around. He’s been in this house one time before, for a really nice secret cuddle session and movie party, but the whole place still feels like a cage to him. And it _is_ a cage to Taemin. Or, at least, it _was_ , until today. He makes his way around the corner and down the hall to Taemin’s room, sliding into the opened door and taking everything in.

The closet is half empty. Fancier clothes still hang to the side, but the rest of the hangers are free, and a good number of the boxes Jinki remembers seeing up on the top shelf are gone. They’re stacked on the desk next to the bed instead, and next to them are two paper bags full of books. On the bed, there are several neat little stacks of clothes, and one stack that’s fallen off to sprawl over the floor. When he turns to the dresser, he sees that one drawer is open and still half full of shirts. Taemin must have been in the middle of this when he and Jonghyun showed up.

Jinki bites his lip before walking forward and crouching down to pick up the fallen shirts. He brushes dust off of each one, then folds them neatly and places them in a nice little stack. When he’s done, he’s faced with the fact that he has nothing to do. He can’t start packing things on his own; they’ve all talked about this in detail before. They’re only taking things that Taemin can prove that he owns and bought with his own money. Jinki doesn’t know which things those are. He sighs, rubs the back of his neck, and leaves the room.

Pushing open the front door as quietly as possible, he finds Jonghyun and Taemin on the porch bench now. Taemin has his forehead on Jonghyun’s shoulder and Jonghyun is swaying them both back and forth gently, humming a little tune that Jinki recognizes as one of his own self-composed songs. He always suspected that that particular one was for Taemin. He slips passed them silently and heads back to the car for the boxes and bags. He can at least pack some of the stuff that Taemin already has ready.

His return trip is much less quiet, and as he passes the pair of them Taemin’s hand reaches out and grabs his forearm gently. Jinki pauses, shifting the boxes to be more secure under his arm, and glances at Jonghyun when Taemin doesn’t immediately say anything. Jonghyun shrugs lightly as he runs his fingers through Taemin’s short black hair. Taemin’s thumb rubs over Jinki’s skin for a few seconds. Then, he takes a deep breath and turns just enough to peek at him.

“Thank you,” he says quietly. “You didn’t… I’m not… you’re not, like--I don’t--we don’t--I-I--” He hisses a sharp curse and presses his face back into Jonghyun’s neck. Jinki didn’t get what that meant at all, but Jonghyun kisses his temple and whispers that it’s okay. He looks up at Jinki with serious eyes.

“Just give us a few more minutes,” he says. Jinki nods and heads back inside.

A few minutes later, after he’s unfolded the first box, tied the tops of the book bags off, and nestled them inside, he hears the front door close. Jonghyun and Taemin come into the room a little bit after, and while Jonghyun looks around and takes in the progress, Taemin scoots around Jinki and grabs a half-empty bottle of water on his desk. He rubs his eyes and sighs heavily after he takes a few sips.

“You okay?” Jinki asks softly. Taemin glances at him, sighs again, nods.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m... better,” he mumbles. “I heard your car and I thought maybe somehow it was them coming back early and… yeah.” He caps his water again and puts it back on the desk. Jinki nods sympathetically. He knows that Taemin can get panic attacks with no triggers at all, so of course he got one from them. “Um, so,” Taemin says, and gestures weakly around the room. “I guess, um. Like. So.” He sighs, shakes his head, moves a stack of jeans on the bed, and sits down.

“So they left at one,” he says, and Jinki realizes that he’s starting from the beginning. Jonghyun pauses in his browsing of Taemin’s albums to listen as well. “To go to some summer end festival thing with my brother. I don’t know why they decided to leave me here home alone for once, but….” he trails off with a shrug and a shake of the head. One of his hands comes up to rub over the rosary on his other wrist. “But they did, and they texted me when they got there. That was three hours later, and they said they wouldn’t be back until late Sunday night. And that they would text me when they left. And that was when I called you.”

“And now we’re here,” Jinki says.

“And soon we’ll all be gone,” Jonghyun adds gently. Taemin still winces away from the words, from the thought, hands clenching in his lap for just a second before he takes a forced breath.

“Yeah,” he whispers.

“Are you really sure you’re ready for this, Taemin?” Jonghyun asks.

“No,” Taemin says quietly. Jinki watches Jonghyun’s fingers curl into his shirt, his silent intake of breath. Taemin shakes his head and rubs his palms into his eyes. “But I’ve wanted to do this since I was eighteen. Since before that. And I haven’t had a chance like this in five years. And who knows when the next one will come up. Ready or not, this has to be it.” His voice shakes as he speaks, like he hasn’t even fully convinced himself of this point.

Which, Jinki guesses, kind of is the point. He’s called them to help him move out several times before, but called all of them off not too soon after. Not enough time, he wasn’t ready physically, he wasn’t ready mentally. Jinki isn’t sure that with his anxiety he’d ever be able to feel fully ready anyway. He thinks it’s less about being ready and more about being able.

And right now, they’re definitely able to do this.

“Everything will turn out okay,” he tells Taemin quietly. Maybe not perfectly, but okay is still good. Okay is better than what it is now. Taemin turns his anxious gaze to him and nods slowly.

“Thanks,” he says again. He looks down, then back up. “So, um. I was gonna. Finish my clothes, and, Jonghyun, you can--oh!” His eyes widen suddenly and he moves to rummage through one of his dresser drawers. “I have, um, gloves. For you both. Because, I don’t know, fingerprints? Just--here.” He hands one pair out to both of them. Jinki takes them with a glance at Jonghyun, and neither of them mention how unlikely it is that anyone will actually dust the room. “Anyway, um. Jonghyun, I have a list, here, of all of the music and games that are actually mine.” He pulls his phone from on top of his headboard and taps it awake to a doc, then hands it over for Jonghyun to look through.

“And, Jinki,” he says. “Um. Please, um. Not the posters, but, the birthday cards, the pictures, the drawings, everything else--please be careful.” He waves a hand to the wall opposite his bed that’s covered in posters and other papers. Jinki glances over it all and nods. Shouldn’t be a problem.

The next hour and some is spent in relative silence as they pack up Taemin’s room. Every few minutes Taemin sucks in a deep breath and audibly lets it out, and every few big breaths Jonghyun leaves Taemin’s shelf to press little kisses to his face and whisper reassurances.

Jonghyun finishes removing everything on the list from Taemin’s shelf first. When they both finish with packing his clothes, they come to help Jinki on the wall. By the time they have everything except the posters taken off and folded neatly into a few folders, the sun has just started to set through the window. Jinki steps back to look at their work so far with a proud little nod. Already it looks pretty bare. Taemin is running his fingers gently over the faces of a band on one of his posters. He sighs and rests his forehead against the paper.

“This one is my favorite but it was a birthday present _from_ them,” he mumbles. Jinki tsks sympathetically and rubs his hand over Taemin’s back. Maybe next July he’ll get a new one.

“Hey, Tae?” Jonghyun asks. Jinki turns to look at him (Taemin leans around Jinki to do the same). He’s staring out of the window with his hand rubbing over the brown buzz on the back of his head. “I know that you want to get out of here as soon as possible,” Jonghyun says, “But, you know how I am about driving at night, and--”

“I know, I know, yeah,” Taemin says quickly. “I knew you would be spending the night here. Choi and Kibummie aren’t even here yet. It’s fine.” The soft smile on Jonghyun’s lips when he turns around is as relieved as Jinki has ever seen him.

“Okay,” he breathes. “So, do you think we could finish this tomorrow?” He waves at the wall and the stuff that still sits on Taemin’s desk. “We could go out for dinner and a movie and snuggle and then leave in the morning.” He gives little claps, bouncing lightly on his toes as he looks between the two of them. Jinki chuckles softly. He’s so cute. Behind him, Taemin laughs as well and slips forward to pull Jonghyun into a hug.

“Yeah, I like that idea,” he says. Jonghyun presses a smile to his cheek and pulls himself out of his hold. Taemin looks around the room, at the door, and then pauses, face falling into anxiety again. He steps backwards slowly until he falls onto his bed and sits with his fingers twisting in his lap. “When… when you say, ‘go out,’ to dinner, though,” he mumbles. “I don’t want… I-I _can’t_ \--” He sucks in a sharp breath and rubs his hands over his face.

Jonghyun is next to him on the bed in a heartbeat, holding him close and whispering little grounding words into his hair. Jinki leans against the wall, feeling small and helpless. He wishes he could do more to help, that he was close enough to Taemin to be able to know what to do. At least he knows to stay back and let Jonghyun handle it. At least he knows how to not make it worse. Eventually, Taemin’s breathing steadies again. He moves his hands back to his lap, but keeps staring at them instead of looking up.

“The next time I leave this house,” he says. “I never want to come back.”

“Aaahhh,” Jonghyun says slowly, in that way that means he understands completely. Jinki sighs as quietly as possible because again, he doesn’t understand. He gets the basics, but not the details. It’s incredible to him how Jonghyun is able to know Taemin’s mind so well. He wonders if Jonghyun knows _his_ mind that much. He hopes so.

“Okay, um, Jinki?” Jonghyun calls his name softly and Jinki blinks back into focus. “I know where the nearest food place is and I know what both of you like,” he says. “Can I get your keys?”

“Oh,” Jinki says. “Yeah, here.” He digs in his pocket and tosses his keys to the bed. Jonghyun catches them, then turns back to Taemin to give his cheek a little kiss.

“I’m gonna go, and you two clean up and find a movie, okay?” he says. He stands up and fixes up his jacket. “I’ll be back before it’s dark. Definitely.”

“All right,” Jinki says. Taemin whispers a soft “okay” from the bed and Jonghyun smiles at both of them before he leaves the room. He pauses for just a second at the doorway to take Jinki’s hand and give him a grateful little squeeze and throw a meaningful look to Taemin. Jinki nods and gently pushes him out.

With his departure comes a long moment of silence; Jinki wouldn’t call it awkward, but it’s not comfortable, either. He’s never really spent time with Taemin without Jonghyun and never more than a few minutes with a negative mood like the one that’s been over the whole house for the past two hours. Taemin avoids looking at him by laying back on his bed and pulling a pillow over his head. Outside, he hears his van starting up and then sees it driving passed the window. He runs his fingers through his hair.

“Hey, um--”

“Thank you,” Taemin says. Jinki pauses; Taemin moves the pillow off of his face and props himself up on his elbows. He looks at Jinki seriously, teeth nibbling his top lip. “I was trying to say, before,” he mumbles. “You didn’t have to… come all this way. For me. I mean, I’m just…. I’m just your qpp’s boyfriend. We’ve hung out, like, _maybe_ three times, and--”

“Hey,” Jinki says, cutting him off as softly as possible. “You’re important. I care about you, too.” They’ve hung out maybe three times and through those short moments of being together and stories Jonghyun has told him, Jinki has grown to really like Taemin. “You’re good and strong and you’re really passionate about the things you love.” It’s a quiet passion, but it’s still as obvious and intense to Jinki as it possibly can be. He cares with all of his heart for the things that are important to him. “Including Jonghyun,” he adds. Taemin’s face turns from vulnerable unease into a soft little laugh of agreement. Jinki smiles back. Nice. “And I’m not going to just not help a friend in need,” he says. Taemin nods, bringing his hand up to push his hair out of his face.

“Thanks,” he says again, and grabs his phone from where Jonghyun left it on the desk. “I’ll try not to panic again before Jonghyun comes back. No promises, but.” He gives a weak little shrug. Jinki shrugs back. If it happens it happens, and they’ll figure out what to do it if does. “Have you seen Chicago?” Taemin asks. “It’s a musical.”

“The one about murder?” Jinki asks. “Jonghyun loves it.”

“Yeah he does,” Taemin mutters. He shakes his head too, a fond little gesture that Jinki feels completely. He wiggles around to sit near the wall and pats the space next to him. “Wanna watch it when he gets back?” he asks.

“Yeah, sure,” Jinki shrugs, and steps forward to sit next to him on the bed. Taemin gives him a shy little smile as he taps the movie into the search bar and starts it loading.

Less than twenty minutes later, after they’ve been giggling over random videos on Jinki’s phone for a while, Jinki hears his van coming back down the street. Taemin tenses next to him, but looks up just in time to see the green paint out the window and recognize it. Jinki gently takes Taemin’s phone to hold as Taemin closes his eyes next to him and shakes for a minute.

After another minute, Jonghyun is knocking softly on the bedroom door and peeping inside. Jinki and Taemin both wave at him and he smiles, slipping inside and closing it behind him. He has two McDonald’s bags in his hand and Taemin’s soft gasp of excitement makes Jinki laugh. Of course.

“Hey,” Jonghyun says, walking to the bed. He peeks into the bags, hands one to Taemin, and sets the other on the desk next to Jinki. Then he puts his hands on his hips and cocks one, a playful little smile on his lips. “Kinda cramped, huh?” he asks, pointing at what little space is left on the bed. Jinki blinks, looks down, and hums thoughtfully. He’s right. That’s hardly enough space for another full human to lie on their back.

“Um,” Taemin says, and Jinki catches him looking around like he thinks he’ll find more bed between the mattress and the wall.

“Oh, dearest me,” Jonghyun sighs, putting his hand over his heart dramatically. “I guess I’ll just have to squish myself in the middle of you two, and spend the whole night snuggled in between two of my favorite babes.” He flutters to the end of the bed, crawls up the covers, and swoons dramatically into little space between them. Jinki throws a quick glance to Taemin before they’re both wiggling further apart to make more room. Jonghyun nestles himself in with a satisfied little hum. “Truly an inconvenience,” he sighs, resting his head on Jinki’s shoulder and taking Taemin’s hand to cuddle under his chin. Jinki shares another look with Taemin, but this time, it’s fondness and amusement. Taemin leans in to press a kiss to Jonghyun’s temple and Jinki reaches over to grab their food to share.

They spend the night like that, snuggled together and sharing soft words until they all fall into an uneasy sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So, what’s the schedule for today?” Key asks. Jinki pauses in his eating; he glances at Jonghyun, and then at Taemin, who’s still poking at his waffles. Taemin takes another bite and swallows before setting his fork down on his napkin. Then he reaches up onto his desk to pull down his phone and bring up the doc from last night.  
> “Um,” he mumbles. “The posters.” He gestures behind him at the half-done wall. “Pillows and laundry. The desk drawers. All my movies and knick-knacks and shit from around the house. The videos and the notes. Wiping me from the PC. Cleaning up. About forty more panic attacks.” His weak laugh is more a soft noise of distress that has all four of them making little noises of sympathy. Choi puts their hand on Taemin’s shoulder and rubs it over his back soothingly.
> 
>  
> 
> **still tw for anxiety and mentions of abusive parents and a v smol emetophobia mention**

****Whispered words and soft rustles are what wake Jinki up again on Saturday morning. He would sigh and grumble because them moving around the whole night has had him on and off sleep, but he knows that it’s neither of their faults. They’re squished and cramped, Jonghyun is super particular about his sleeping rituals on top of his insomnia, he thinks Taemin has had at least three nightmares… they haven’t had the best night either. At least this time there’s bright sunlight streaming in through Taemin’s window. At least this time it’s actually morning. As his senses slowly come back to him, Jinki makes out the words Jonghyun is whispering to Taemin.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he breathes. “You’re in bed, with me and Jinki. You’re safe. They’re not back early. You’re safe.” Each little reassurance is given between a soft kiss and Jinki can hear that Taemin’s breaths are quick and muffled, like he’s got his face in Jonghyun’s chest. He shifts closer and snakes his arm around Jonghyun’s waist to let him know that he’s awake. Jonghyun doesn’t acknowledge him at first, but after whispering a few more comforting words to Taemin, he turns just enough to peep at Jinki over his shoulder.

“Morning,” he murmurs. “Can you get the front door? Minjunggie and Gwi are here.”

“Already?” Jinki asks, rolling out of the bed anyway. “Holy shit,” he mumbles. It’s almost a four hour drive for them and it’s not even ten. He rubs sleep out of his eyes and shuffles out of the room, making a quick stop in the bathroom to fluff his hair out and splash some water over his face. When he gets to the front door and opens it, both Choi and Key are standing there, Choi tall and sturdy and sharp, Key fresh and colorful and looking more awake than they should be this early. He sees both of them try to hide their amused little smiles when they look his sleep-rumpled ass up and down. He grins lazily back. “Hey,” he says, lifting a hand in a wave.

“Hi,” Key says, and steps forward to come inside. Choi follows with a little nod and a pat on Jinki’s shoulder. “We stopped to get breakfast on the way here,” Key says, holding up four little takeout boxes. Jinki gasps softly. Nice.

“When did you leave?” he asks curiously as Key puts the boxes on a shelf next to the door and stretches out their arms over their head.

“Like… five thirtyish,” they shrug. “When it first started getting light. So Jonghyun wouldn’t worry.” They lower their arms and reach out to gently tug Choi closer with a hand on their sleeve. Choi closes the door behind them, lowers a duffel bag to the floor, and then points over Jinki’s shoulder with a little smile. Jinki turns to look and smiles himself when he sees that it’s Taemin shuffling down the hallway. Taemin smiles quickly at him, and then looks passed him at his second datefriend.

“Kibummie,” he hums, stepping around Jinki to melt into Key’s arms. Key smiles fondly and runs their fingers through Taemin’s hair as Taemin nuzzles their neck.

“Feeling okay?” they ask softly. Taemin’s shoulders rise and fall in a shrug.

“Okay,” he mumbles. “I heard you at the door and didn’t realize you would be here so early and had a panic attack, but. Besides that. ‘Mm good. Relatively.” He squeezes Key close and lifts his head just enough to smile sleepily at Choi. “Hi,” he says. “Nice to meet you in person finally.” Choi smiles back and boops his nose. Taemin giggles softly and turns to rub his nose against Key’s shirt. Jinki watches him with amusement and finds himself thinking about how right Jonghyun always was whenever he fawned about sleepy Taemin. He’s fucking adorable. “Food?” Taemin asks quietly then, reaching behind Key to poke the little boxes on the shelf.

“Mmhmm,” Key hums. “Waffles for you in one. I almost dropped them tripping over a crack in the sidewalk, but. I saved them.” They grin proudly, flipping their rainbow hair in victory. Taemin laughs softly, but tilts his head when he moves to peek inside the boxes.

“Why were you that far down the sidewalk?” he asks as he picks out his own and pulls a nibble of bacon out.

“Ahh, we didn’t want to bug the neighbors by parking too close on the street,” Key shrugs. “No big deal.”

“Mmm,” Taemin hums. “The neighbors.” He looks out of the window with a little frown. “The neighbors can… see your car.” He turns to Jinki with a bitten lip, one hand lifting to run through his hair. “What--what if they, like. What if they--oh, fuck.” His breathing catches and he swallows thickly. “God, it hasn’t even been five minutes,” he whispers, right before Key has him wrapped up in their arms.

Jinki looks away awkwardly as Key helps Taemin through another panic attack. He has no idea what he’s supposed to do. After a moment he catches Choi’s eye; they look just as lost as he does. He shares a quick “same” smile with them before he silently jerks his thumb back down the hallway. Choi nods and they set off back towards Taemin’s room together. They both know how to act with Jonghyun. He’s theirs.

And he comes out of the bedroom at the exact moment that Jinki is reaching for the doorknob, one hand rubbing his eye and the other muffling a yawn. Jinki jumps, then Choi, and then Jonghyun with a startled little noise.

“Oh,” Jonghyun says when he looks between them. He pats Jinki’s chest gently before turning fully to Choi, lifting his arms to wrap around their neck.

“Minho, my love, my babe, my star,” he hums softly, nuzzling against Choi’s shoulder. “Hi.” He blinks blearily up at Choi with the laziest, sleepiest smile. Choi hums the tiniest noise back and rubs their thumb over his cheek. Jinki rolls his eyes fondly and slips into the bedroom. Those two always get way too lovey-dovey for his repulsion to handle. And he should give them the opportunity to actually speak. As he shuffles back into the blessedly empty, blessedly still warm bed, he hears their soft conversation from the crack in the door.

“You’re so… fucking tall.”

“You’re small.”

“String bean.”

“Lawn gnome.”

“I’m cute.”

“You’re adorable.”

_“You’re_ adorable.”

“Mmhmm.”

“I have to pee.”

It’s that sentence, that last little mumble of Jonghyun’s, that has Jinki smiling to himself as he slips back into another warm nap.

The next time he’s woken up, he’s still tired, but he’s not as grumpy about it. It’s when the other four all come into the room at once with the smell of breakfast following them. He sits up against the wall with a badly muffled yawn, blinking at Jonghyun wiggling under the covers next to him but slipping his arm around his waist anyway. Key sits on the other side of Jonghyun, and Choi and Taemin take seats on the floor. Jonghyun hands him a water bottle and a takeout box; Jinki opens it and hisses softly in victory when it turns out to be a small spanish omelette. Fantastic.

They all eat in silence at first, Key and Choi passing their leftovers from earlier back and forth. Jinki doesn’t say anything because he’s still too tired to make too many words. He doesn’t know about the others, but he’s sure that they have their reasons. He’s just happy to eat his breakfast in peace with Jonghyun leaning against his side. After a few minutes, it’s Key that breaks the silence.

“So, what’s the schedule for today?” they ask. Jinki pauses in his eating; he glances at Jonghyun, and then at Taemin, who’s still poking at his waffles. Taemin takes another bite and swallows before setting his fork down on his napkin. Then he reaches up onto his desk to pull down his phone and bring up the doc from last night.

“Um,” he mumbles. “The posters.” He gestures behind him at the half-done wall. “Pillows and laundry. The desk drawers. All my movies and knick-knacks and shit from around the house. The videos and the notes. Wiping me from the PC. Cleaning up. About forty more panic attacks.” His weak laugh is more a soft noise of distress that has all four of them making little noises of sympathy. Choi puts their hand on Taemin’s shoulder and rubs it over his back soothingly.

“You’ll be fine,” Jonghyun says gently. “We all will.”

“And Choi and I brought better gloves and little disinfectant wipes,” Key adds. “For super DNA erasure.”

“And what’s a few days of mega parent anxiety against the rest of your life with only occasional parent anxiety?” Jinki asks.

_“Jinki,”_ Jonghyun hisses, but Taemin is muffling a weak laugh into the back of his hand. Jinki wiggles his eyebrows at both of them. He was totally right there.

“Well, anyway,” Key says, standing up and putting their empty box on Taemin’s desk. “You three finish eating. We’ll start on the posters.” They tug Choi up with them and stretch their arms over their head again with a little noise. Taemin hands them his phone with the list of which posters to take down. Jonghyun crawls to the end of the bed to plug his phone into Taemin’s speakers for some soft music and Jinki leans back to rest his head against the wall. He wants to be comfortable while he eats. It’s going to be a long day.

Only several hours later, he’s lounging on Taemin’s parents’ couch, watching a squirrel fucking around outside while Choi wrestles with their tripod stand in the kitchen. Jinki thinks maybe he overestimated the amount of stuff Taemin had in this house. He’s not sure if that’s sad or a relief, but he doesn’t really want to think about it. At least they’ll be able to leave around one or two.

The squirrel outside jumps off of the windowsill and scurries away; Jinki tsks, disappointed. Then the front door opens and he hums, understanding. Alright then. Jonghyun and Key step inside with two little bags from the corner store, closing the door behind them quickly so the heat doesn’t get in.

“Honies, I’m home,” Jonghyun sings, and Jinki snorts. He’s so adorable. He flutters over to Jinki and pulls a tub of mint Dibs out of his bag, which Jinki takes with a soft gasp of excitement. Nice. He thought they were just going to get some more water bottles. He gets up to grab a napkin since he can tell that they’re already melty. He squeezes passed Key helping Choi turn on their camera and watches Jonghyun peeping into the laundry room where Taemin is grabbing his sheets and pillowcases from the dryer.

After another few minutes, Taemin comes out with a strawberry ring pop around his finger and Jonghyun follows with the laundry basket in his arms. Taemin’s hair is mussed like Jonghyun just spent the last minute or so petting through it. Key tsks and reaches up to fix it up to be even.

“We’re ready to do the video if you are,” they say gently. Taemin blinks, swallows, glances at the camera set up in front of one of the kitchen chairs.

“Oh,” he says. “Um. Okay, um.”

“It doesn’t have to be _right this second,_ ” Key says. “We can wait until you’re more ready.”

“I’m never gonna be more ready,” Taemin sighs. He rubs his hands over his face and takes a deep, shaky breath. “Whatever, whatever, let’s just--let’s just do it.” He steps forward with a confidence that’s completely faked and all but falls into the chair. A bump on Jinki’s elbow catches his attention and he hisses when he realizes that Jonghyun is struggling to hold the weight of the basket in such a small space. He puts his ice cream on the shelf by the door and moves out of Jonghyun’s way.

“I’ll take that,” he says quietly, grabbing the sides of the basket. Jonghyun lets him, but keeps his hand on one handle.

“You’re sure?” he asks, throwing a look at where Choi is focusing the camera on Taemin’s anxious face. Jinki nods.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says. “You should be here for this more than I should.” He’s important too, but not as close to Taemin as Jonghyun and Key are, and Choi kind of has to be there to work the camera. “I’ll be done before they are,” he says. Jonghyun nods and pushes him gently down the hall. As he walks to Taemin’s room, he hears Taemin clapping to sync and then his first shaky words: “This is Lee Taemin, twenty-three, son… or… child… of. Of Lee Kyungsoo and. And. Nnngh, fuck.”

Jinki sighs softly as he tugs the door closed behind him. The kid doesn’t deserve this. He puts the basket on Taemin’s newly emptied desk and takes the sheets out to throw onto the mattress. Then he moves all of the pillows that Taemin can’t take with him into the basket, pulls his gloves out of his back pocket, and gets to work wrestling everything back onto the bed.

When he's finally done, he’s a little winded and a little embarrassed about that. Making a bed is always trash and he should’ve asked Jonghyun to help him. He lets out an accomplished whoosh of breath anyway and brushes some fuzz off of the bed before grabbing the basket and carrying it back down the hall.

It occurs to him before he even reaches the kitchen that he won’t be able to put the basket back into the laundry room without getting in the way of the video, so he just slips behind everyone and puts it on the living room floor for now. Then he grabs a little wipe from the pack Key left on the computer desk and wipes down the handles where he and Jonghyun touched it without their gloves, just to give Taemin peace of mind.

Once he’s done he silently steps to stand with the others behind the camera and give Taemin a fourth encouraging little smile to draw his strength from. Taemin pauses from his shaky words to look at him and smile weakly back. Key and Choi glance at him; Jonghyun reaches back to hold his wrist and tug him closer.

“Okay, um, where was I?” Taemin asks. Jinki rests his forehead on the back of Jonghyun’s head for one guilty second. Whoops.

“Your contact info,” Key says. “Like, two words in. Maybe just start it over.” They point to a spot on their tablet, which Jinki leans over to see. It looks like Taemin’s whole speech is typed out in large font. Taemin squints at it and then nods quickly, putting his hand on his chest with deep breaths.

“Okay,” he says. “Okay.” He takes another deep breath and looks back into the camera lens. “And,” he says. “I’ve wiped all of my phone stuff and am going to get a new one and number as soon as humanly possible. My email and all social medias are either already changed or I’ve blocked you on them. I already changed my mailing address a while ago. I’m gonna change my name. And I’ve already talked to abuse counselors about all of this. If--if you try to. If you. I-if--” He stammers to a stop and shakes his head, scrunching his eyes shut and looking into his lap. Jonghyun steps forward to crouch next to him and put one hand on his knee, the other lifting to brush his hair out of his face. Taemin covers Jonghyun’s hand with his and only takes a few seconds to regain his composure.

“You’re doing great,” Jonghyun whispers, pressing a kiss to his cheek and stepping back.

“Thanks,” Taemin whispers back, and rubs his eyes before looking first at where Key is holding his script up and then into the camera. “If you try to contact me, at all,” he says. “Or anyone that I’m staying with. I _will_. File a restraining order against you.” For all the surety that he had with his “will,” his voice still breaks slightly at the end of his sentence. Jinki bites his lip. Taemin takes a deep breath anyway and continues on. “I have pictures and accounts and recordings and just… more than enough proof of everything you’ve--you’ve done to me to get it approved in court.” Jinki nods silently. He’s been there while Jonghyun was getting frantic livetexts, he’s seen the pictures Taemin sent to Jonghyun for safekeeping, he’s skimmed some of the posts on Taemin’s secret personal blog that detail the events after they happen.

“So, um,” Taemin says. He runs his fingers through his hair and looks at Key’s tablet again. “That’s it,” he says. “That’s all.” His hands shake even more than before and he clenches them in front of his stomach. “In summary, um, you are both abusive garbage. So I’m leaving. And I’m never coming back. And, um.” He scrunches his eyes shut for a second before opening them. “Oh, and, it’s against the law to file a false missing persons report,” he says, tapping one finger against his stomach. “And I’ll have proof that I left this and the note here. In case you try to pretend like… in case you send the police after me. And…. So….” He trails off, tapping his shoes on the floor. “I don’t know how to end it,” he mumbles quietly. “I never got around to writing an end in the script.”

“Say ‘fuck you,’” Key says immediately. Jinki rolls his eyes and catches Choi lightly shoving Key’s side. “ _What?_ ” Key asks. “That’s what it all boils down to.”

“Say ‘goodbye,’” Jonghyun says. “Short and simple.”

“Just say ‘bye,’” Jinki suggests. Taemin’s parents don’t deserve anything good. Choi shakes their head and reaches for Key’s tablet, tugging it out of their hands and typing something quickly. Jinki catches it before they turn it around.

“You’re not welcome in my life anymore. Goodbye. ((and then stand up and walk out of the shot))"

“Oh, that’s good,” Jinki says, nodding before Choi even turns it around. The others all lean to read it as well, and Jonghyun and Key both nod their approval.

“I like it,” Jonghyun says, Key humming a little agreement. Taemin chews on his bottom lip but shrugs after a moment and nods quickly.

“Okay, okay, sure,” he says. “It’s better than anything I could think of.” Choi’s grin turns wide and proud as they hand the tablet back to Key. Jinki snorts. They’re always so smug about little things. Though, he guesses, he can get the same, so he can’t exactly judge. He rests his chin on Jonghyun’s shoulder as Taemin takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, opens them, says his line as firmly as Jinki’s heard him be all weekend, and stands up. The Taemin in the little camera screen steps confidently out of the frame; the real Taemin stumbles immediately into Jonghyun’s arms.

“Oh, baby, shh,” Jonghyun whispers, automatically tugging him closer. “Shh. You did so well.” As he pets Taemin’s hair, Key slips in front of the camera to hold Taemin as well. Jinki watches the three of them, wrapped up in each other as they are, and steps back to peep at Choi’s camera instead. As they’re stopping the recording and saving everything, they throw a quick glance back and forth between Jinki and the other three. Jinki shrugs back.

He doesn’t think Taemin is actually panicking this time; just feeling a lot of emotions. He gets it. He leaves the kitchen with Choi to watch them edit the video together on the PC. The other three stay in there with their soft words and gentle praises, which is fine. They’ll untangle when Taemin is ready.

Until then, Jinki stays with Choi, leaning up against the back of their chair and watching them work. They’re skilled and fast at the whole editing thing; with their headphones in, Jinki can barely keep up with what they’re doing. Suddenly he appreciates how much work being a vlogger actually takes. When he gets back home he’ll sub to Choi’s channel even though he already watches all of their videos with Jonghyun anyway. They deserve the extra support.

And apparently, Taemin doesn’t need as much anymore, because he comes shuffling over to them while Choi is cutting out a few seconds of footage.

“Thanks, both of you,” he mumbles, hovering a hand over Choi’s shoulder and gently nuzzling Jinki’s. Choi covers Taemin’s hand with theirs with a reassuring smile. Jinki presses the tiniest of kisses to Taemin’s temple.

“We’re here for you,” he says. Choi nods in agreement and Taemin gives them both the weakest smile.

“I think,” he says. “I’m gonna go. Clean up.” He leaves them with a little squeeze to join Key rummaging in their bag for rags to wipe things down with. Jonghyun is passing him, and touches his butt with a little smirk before he flutters innocently to stand behind Choi. He drapes himself over their shoulders, crosses his arms over their chest, and presses a kiss to their cheek.

“Hello, my babe among babes,” he hums, and Jinki rolls his eyes. He leaves to go help Key clean up as well. He’d rather not witness all of that.

The final clean goes pretty quickly; the three of them finish taping up the boxes and loading them into the back of Jinki’s minivan easily enough. Next is the sweeping and wiping down of everything, twice, and Taemin anxiously wandering around the house and checking every corner for anything that might have been forgotten. Jinki almost told him that it wasn’t worth the effort until he saw the mostly melted carton of Dibs that he himself left and forgot on the shelf earlier. Then he joined in the search with red cheeks and a judging look from Key.

After all of that, all that’s left is for Choi to finish editing the video and wiping all of Taemin’s stuff from the PC. Jinki is back to lounging on the couch, blessing the fact that portable chargers exist and he can still use his phone. Key is at the kitchen table touching up their makeup so they can look hot on the ride home. Jonghyun and Taemin disappeared into Taemin’s room a while ago to have a quick nap. Things feel both chill and tense at the same time, like a temporary calm before the storm of emotions that will inevitably come when it’s time to leave.

“Oh--shit, fuck,” Key hisses suddenly. It’s followed by a loud clatter and Jinki looks up to peer into the kitchen curiously. Key is sighing out an annoyed breath, wiping some powder off of their wrist. Jinki looks down at the floor; a little compact is lying there with its powder broken and spilled all over the tile.

“Rip in pieces,” he says helpfully. Key huffs at him and reaches to snatch up their makeup.

“Go ask Taem if there’s a mini vacuum somewhere,” they grumble. “Ugh, that was like, thirty dollars.” Jinki sighs, but agrees, rolling off of the couch. He deserves the task for laughing. He rubs his eye as he walks down the hallway. He doesn’t want to have to wake them up, if they’re still asleep. Though, as he gets closer to the door, he hears their soft voices and figures he won’t have to deal with that.

“I wanna help you relax,” Jonghyun is murmuring. Jinki nods to himself. A noble goal.

“I know,” Taemin says back. “It’s just. You know I’ve never, and….” He trails off, and Jinki doesn’t nod this time. This sounds suspiciously… suspicious. “But, god, I’ve always wanted to,” Taemin breathes just as Jinki turns the corner to stand in the doorway. His brows raise at what he sees: Taemin sat on the edge of the bed, legs spread just wide enough to allow Jonghyun to kneel between them. They’re focused completely on each other, and if Jinki leans just right, he can see Taemin’s thumb rubbing over Jonghyun’s plump lower lip. “With you, ever since I met you,” he whispers. “And your pretty mouth.” He shifts closer to the edge and Jonghyun sucks the tip of his thumb into his mouth, and that’s when Jinki decides to speak up.

“Okay, literally,” he says, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms. Both of them jump with startled noises. Jonghyun turns to him with wide eyes and Taemin whips his hand away, shoving it under his thigh and biting his lip guiltily. “There are three other people in this house and you didn’t even shut the door,” Jinki says, nothing more than amused at the whole situation.

“Sorry,” Taemin says immediately. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, nngh, fuck--”

“Did you want something?” Jonghyun asks clearly, the forced casualness heavy in his voice. Jinki smooths away too wide of a smile in his hand before nodding.

“Yeah, Key spilled powder makeup all over the kitchen floor,” he tells Taemin. “Do you have like a mini vacuum or something?” Jonghyun sighs and sits back, leaning on his palms. Taemin swallows thickly as he nods.

“Um,” he says. “Yeah, um, in the laundry room closet, but.” He shakes his head quickly. “It’s broken. Just use wet paper towels.” Wet paper towels. Got it. Jinki stays against the doorframe, amusement slowly growing as both of them just get pinker.

“Choi is almost done on the computer,” he tells them as way of implying that they don’t have a lot of time.

“Yeah, yeah, just,” Jonghyun says, and waves his hand at the door, at Jinki. “Just. Give us a few minutes.”

“Hey,” Taemin grumbles. “I can last more than a few minutes.” He’s frowning, a petulant little pout. Jinki snorts as Jonghyun turns a confident smirk to him.

“Trust me, with my mouth, you won’t be able to,” he says.

“Oh,” Taemin says, a shaky little breath. Jinki shakes his head.

“Are you sure you want your first time to be in _this_ house?” he asks.

“Can you _leave?_ ” Jonghyun hisses, whipping back around to give him an annoyed glare. Jinki grins back and waves a little wave as he pushes off of the wall and strolls back down the hallway.

“Just use wet paper towels,” he tells Key when he gets back into the kitchen. Key sighs, but nods, dumping a dry paper towel full of excess powder into the little garbage bag they have hanging off of the fridge door. He follows them to help, wiping down the table while they crouch on the floor. Before he’s even finished, Taemin comes quietly around the corner with Jonghyun clinging behind him and nosing against his shoulder. He grins at them as they lean against the wall together. “Hey,” he says.

“Cockblock,” Jonghyun mumbles back. It surprises a laugh from Jinki and he steps forward to hug Jonghyun tightly from the side.

“You’re great,” he tells him. Jonghyun grumbles and pushes Jinki away, but only halfheartedly, and when Jinki tries to step back he holds him close and slips a hand down to touch his butt. Jinki rolls his eyes. “Super great,” he adds.

“Thanks,” Jonghyun mumbles.

Choi snaps at them then; an attention grabbing snap, one hand held out to be seen from the little corner the computer is in. Jinki looks over curiously to see him with a full video cut and edited together and a proud little smile. Oh. Nice. He pulls out his phone, Key and Jonghyun doing the same, so they can document this next part like they planned.

Once they’re all grouped around the computer, Taemin gripping tightly to Key’s arm, Jonghyun counts down from five and all three of them start recording themselves with their phones at the same time.

“Okay, uh, yeah,” Key starts, speaking to his camera. Jinki turns his phone to them. “This is, legally, Kim Kibum.”

“And….” Jonghyun says, waiting for both phones to be on him. “Kim Jonghyun.”

“Lee Jinki,” Jinki adds a moment later.

“L-Lee Taemin,” Taemin whispers next. When they all turn their phones to Choi, they’re holding up a little postie-note with “Choi Min” written on it and a smug little grin.

“And,” Key says. “This is all of us, witnessing Choi moving Taemin’s goodbye video….” Choi plays a little bit of the video quickly, skipping through to the end to prove it’s the whole thing. “Into this flash drive, the only one in the computer….” Jinki zooms in dramatically on the mouse cursor as it clicks the saved video file and copies it to the flash drive. “And taking it out,” Key hums, and then they all follow Choi as they tug the drive out with a gloved hand. “Taking it to the kitchen… putting it on the counter, very obvious, next to the phone and…. Taemin, is that a ceramic frog in a top hat?” Jinki snorts at Key’s obvious confusion. He turns the camera first to the frog on the counter, and then to Taemin, who’s blushing and rubbing his nose.

“Yeah, um, I think a cousin gave it to my mom for a birthday or something,” he mumbles.

“I think she’s cute,” Jonghyun says. He reaches over and boops it gently with a sleeve-covered hand.

“Anyway,” Jinki says. “We’re leaving the drive here, on top of the typed out note, with Taemin’s real signature that he’s signing right now.” He turns the camera to Taemin, who blinks, startled.

“Oh,” he says. “Oh--right, right.” He fumbles for one of the pens on the counter. “Sorry, I forgot,” he says as he scrawls his signature at the end of the letter with a shaky hand.

“It’s okay,” Key says gently, brushing his hair out of his face. Jinki has no idea how they can do things and hold their phone at the perfect angle at the same time. He’s been struggling to not drop his this whole time.

“So, yeah,” Jonghyun says. His camera is turned back to him. “This is our proof. So, bye.”

“Mmhmm,” Jinki hums, looking into his own camera. “Bye for hopefully forever.” He ends his recording; looking at the others, he sees Jonghun has as well but Key is still holding their camera up.

“Also,” Key says, once they see that they’re the only one still recording. They look straight into their lens. “To Taemin’s old parents, uh, fuck you.” They smile pretty, wink, and end their recording. Jinki sighs.

_“Gwi_ ,” Jonghyun says heavily. Choi shoves them lightly again with a disapproving look.

“ _What?_ ” they ask. “No one’s ever gonna see these anyway.” They tuck their phone into their pocket and turn to Taemin, who Jinki has just realized is pressing his face into Key’s shoulder. “Because they are never,” Key says, tugging Taemin’s chin up to look into his eyes. “Going to find you.” Taemin’s lower lip trembles even at their soft voice. He looks back down, burying his face into Key’s neck and gripping their shirt. Jinki catches the faintest “but what if they do?” before Jonghyun takes his wrist and tugs him away.

At the computer, Jinki rests his head on Jonghyun’s shoulder as Choi goes through all of Taemin’s stuff, adding folders and files to a second drive. They delete them all next, delete apps and games and icons, then clear his search history, clear all of his saved passwords, clear pretty much everything, and skim through the leftovers quickly. They go to Taemin’s settings next and change the password to something long and complicated with numbers and capitals that Taemin would probably never think of. With that, they sign out and tap their gloved fingers on the desk with an accomplished smile. Jonghyun leans down and nuzzles a kiss into their neck, but Jinki keeps looking at Taemin’s little name on the sign in screen.

“Can’t you, like,” he says. “Delete his whole account?” That would be better, right? He knows that Taemin knows the administrator password, unless his father changed it. Choi looks up at him with a helpless sort of shrug. They sign something, a “yeah but I think,” and then some stuff Jinki doesn’t catch fully, and end with “Don’t want to deal with it.” Jinki blinks blankly at them. He thinks he missed the most important part of that.

“Sorry,” he says, bringing his hands up to repeat one of the words Choi signed. “I haven’t been studying as much, lately, what’s--”

“Illegal,” Jonghyun tells him. “They’re pretty sure it’s illegal to enter someone’s account without permission and make any changes and they don’t wanna deal with it.” Choi nods with a thankful little smile. Jinki blinks again.

“Oh,” he says. “Yeah, okay, makes sense.” They’re leaving half of Taemin’s shit behind just on the off chance that his parents decide to accuse them of stealing; hacking into their personal computer would definitely be a move that ruins that plan. Choi powers down the computer, pulls out their little flash drive, and packs it up in their bag along with their camera and tripod. Then they stand up straight and sling it over their shoulder, and then they look back into the kitchen. That’s when they pause.

Jinki does as well; Taemin still has his face buried in Key’s chest. Jonghyun slips over there quietly and rubs a soothing hand over his back. It’s another long moment, but eventually, Taemin lifts his head. Jonghyun leans in to give him a slow kiss.

“Time to go,” he whispers, so soft that Jinki barely hears it. What he does hear is Taemin’s audible intake of breath. He sees Taemin’s hands wrinkle the back of Key’s shirt, too.

“Um,” Taemin says. “I-I--I’m gonna check my room.” He pulls himself from Key’s hold and scuttles down the hallway before anyone can say anything. Jinki glances at Choi, then follows them to join the other two in the kitchen. None of them speak; they listen to Taemin opening the bedroom door, closing it again, walking back down. As soon as he turns the corner and looks at them he stops and takes a hesitant step back.

“I have--I have to pee,” he mumbles. He turns around and leaves again, just as quickly as before. This time, Jinki shares a look with the other three. The next time Taemin comes back Key is able to push his hair out of his face and ask if he’s ready. “I think,” Taemin says, and then immediately sucks in a breath. “Wait, no--Jonghyun--Jonghyun put the basket--I’m gonna. See if he forgot anything. In the laundry room.”

“I didn’t,” Jonghyun starts, but Taemin is already through the door. Jonghyun sighs. Jinki rubs his hands over his shoulders. Taemin leaves the laundry room but walks right passed everyone.

“I didn’t check my desk,” Taemin mumbles, not looking at them as he heads down the hallway again. Choi leans up against the wall and picks at something under their nail. Key hikes their bag more over their shoulder. When Taemin returns, his hand shakes so much when he tries pushing his hair out of his face that it just makes it worse.

“I,” he says shortly. “I--Kibummie, are you sure, um. Are you sure you cleaned up? Your powder?” He pushes gently passed everyone and grabs a napkin from the counter, staring at the floor. “Maybe, um. Maybe we should, just, mop the whole floor. Just to be safe. I’ll get the.” He drops napkin and walks halfway across the kitchen to the mop closet, then changes directions and comes back to the group. “Did I check the laundry?” he asks. He wiggles passed Jonghyun and reaches for the door. “I’ll just--”

“Taemin.” If Jinki surprised Taemin with his sudden word, with the hand on Taemin’s shoulder keeping him from moving, it’s nothing to how he’s surprised himself. He puts his other hand on Taemin’s shoulder anyway and holds him close enough to look into his eyes. Taemin looks back, eyes wide, scared, full of more anxiety than he’s had this whole time. Jinki just stares at him, unable to think of anything to say. He doesn’t know what _to_ say. He doesn’t know why Taemin is stalling; he doesn’t have Jonghyun’s delicate knowledge of Taemin’s brain. He doesn’t have Key’s quick perceptiveness. All he has is his own self, and his own self has no idea what the fuck the right thing to say is to calm Taemin.

He still wants to help. Seeing Taemin like this hurts him, makes his heart ache with pity, with care, with anger, with a hundred emotions. No one should be this fucked up. He opens his mouth, shakes his head, prepares himself for whatever it is that decides to come out of his mouth.

“You--”

“I used to dissociate,” Taemin says suddenly. “A lot. In high school. Really bad.” His mouth shakes as he tries to form his next words. His eyes don’t leave Jinki’s. “I would black out and then come back later and not remember anything.” Jinki has no idea why Taemin is telling him this, why he’s sharing such personal information with the entire kitchen, why he’s focused on Jinki as he does it. “It stopped being as bad after school and I haven’t in years,” Taemin says. His hands clench at his sides. “I used to hate it,” he says. “Now I just… wish it would happen again.” His last words are a broken whisper.

Jinki pulls him forward and hugs him close.

Taemin’s arms settle around his waist slowly, much more slowly than they would around either Jonghyun or Key, but Jinki is sure that they’re just as tight. He wonders, as Taemin curls into his neck and shudders out weak breaths, if this is what the other two feel like all the time. If they have Taemin’s weight memorized, if they remember the exact speed of Taemin’s heart thudding next to theirs, if they can predict exactly where Taemin’s fingers would curl into their sides. He wonders if they’re used to it; then, almost as soon as that thought enters his mind, he pushes it away. They can’t be. No one would get used to the feeling of calm urgency that Jinki has in his chest right now. The intense need to be as soothing and comforting as possible.

He doesn’t know what to say still. He wishes he could murmur sweet comforts, soft reassurances, gentle little logic paths to soothe the shaking mess in his arms, but he doesn’t know how. He doesn’t know if Taemin needs a reminder of where he is right now because he’s caught in memories of his past or if he needs a spelled out schedule to combat the worst-case future scenario he’s conjured up in his head. He just stays silent and holds him.

He’s staring at the ground behind Taemin, at the mismatched hardwood, gaze drifting out of focus as he concentrates more on being as comfortable as possible in his silence. It’s why he blinks when a pair of feet suddenly take up the space. He looks up: Choi is there now, rubbing their thumbs soothingly over Taemin’s shoulderblades. Taemin tenses, but only for a half-second before he melts into the touch. A hand that Jinki sees as Key’s wiggles against his side to loop around Taemin’s arm, their chin resting on his shoulder. Jonghyun next, his head on Jinki’s shoulder but his fingers brushing slowly through Taemin’s hair.

It’s a long, long time that they all stand like that, tangled in each other but all focused on Taemin. Jinki isn’t sure if it’s long in minutes or long in feeling. It’s probably both. Either way, eventually, Taemin lifts his head up from Jinki’s neck. Jinki keeps his hands on Taemin’s shoulders, Choi’s hands stay on his back, and Jonghyun and Key each take a hand to hold. Taemin looks around at all of them with quick, hesitant glances. Jinki squeezes his shoulders and looks him in the eye.

“Let’s go,” he says. Taemin inflates with a slow, shaky breath. When he lets it out, an “okay” floats out of his lips with it.

“Okay,” Jinki repeats. He takes his hands away from Taemin and takes a step back. He stuffs his hand into his pocket and wiggles a glove onto it. With that hand, he turns off the kitchen light and walks to the front door, holding it open for everyone else. Choi scoots through first, and then Jonghyun, Taemin, and Key, Taemin in the middle with both of them holding one arm. In Key’s free hand is their garbage bag, tied off at the top to be thrown away far away from here. Jinki closes the door softly behind them.

Picking who rides with who goes quickly; Jonghyun moves to follow Taemin into the backseat of Jinki’s minivan but Taemin stops him with a hand to the chest.

“For your phobia’s sake,” he says shakily. “Don’t.” Jinki watches Jonghyun cringe at just the thought. He digs in his glove box for nausea wristbands and a plastic bag, which he hands back to Taemin as Jonghyun presses the quickest of kisses to the corner of his lips before grabbing Choi’s hand and briskly walking them down the street to their car. Key climbs into Jinki’s van instead. They buckle themself into the middle seat and lean gently on Taemin’s side, head on his shoulder and hand running gently over his thigh.

Glancing quickly in his rearview mirror, Jinki sticks his keys in and starts the car. A sharp hiss and another glance show him Taemin all tensed up, but he doesn’t protest as Jinki backs out of the driveway. Jinki evens out on the street, takes a moment to figure out his directions, and steps on the gas.

With that, at one forty-seven in the afternoon on Saturday, the twenty-fourth of September, at twenty-three years, two months, and one week old, Taemin leaves his parents’ house for the last time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jinki heads to his bedroom really quick to plug his phone into his charger and wiggle into some fresh clothes. By the time he gets back to the living room, Jonghyun and Key have tugged Taemin in and laid him gently down on Jonghyun’s bed. Taemin curls up small, hands gripping his water bottle tight. Key pulls a sheet up to his waist and Jonghyun pushes his hair out of his face.  
> “Just rest,” Jonghyun says quietly.
> 
> **still tw for anxiety, abuse mentions, and v smol emetophobia mentions**

****Taemin hasn’t uttered a word for over an hour. **  
**

Jinki keeps glancing at him in the rearview mirror, quick little looks whenever they hit a bit of traffic or a relatively empty stretch of road. His head is in his hands, body hunched over with his elbows on his knees, dark hair covering his face. His plastic bag dangles off of his pinky and his fingers haven’t stopped twitching ever since they hit the highway. He hasn’t thrown up yet, but there have been a few close calls of frantic rustling and hands clenching his bag so tightly that his knuckles turn white. Key next to him has their feet crossed on Jinki’s glove compartment but their hand hasn’t left Taemin’s body once this whole time. Not even when they leaned forward at a stoplight to hand Jinki their ipod to plug into his stereo to run through a playlist of quiet, chill songs.

He doesn’t have to speak, obviously; he’s going through a lot and it’s not like Jinki needs help getting back to his own home or anything. It’s perfectly okay for Taemin to stay silent. It’s just… worrying.

Taemin isn’t ready for this. He knew that from the start, they all did, but it still makes guilt and insecurity swirl in Jinki’s chest. He knows that they’re doing the right thing. He knows that Taemin needed to get out of that house and as far away as possible. They’d all made plans together over two years ago and had only been strengthening and improving on them since. He knows that Taemin would never be fully prepared and okay with this, and that was part of the plan too. But still--knowing that in theory and then seeing it out in practise are two very different things.

He doesn’t know how long Taemin’s frequent panic attacks are going to last, how long he’ll carry his constant fears and what-ifs with him, how long it’ll take him to feel safe again. Driving this car, being the one that’s personally transporting Taemin away, makes Jinki feel responsible for his super anxiety. And he wants to help, but he doesn’t know how. It’s best to leave that to Key and Jonghyun, but that just makes him feel helpless. He squeezes his steering wheel and sighs quietly as he slows just enough to let someone merge in front of him. At least they’re almost home.

“Hey… Jinx?”

“Hmm?” Jinki glances in his rearview mirror at Key’s voice. Key is looking at their phone, but they glance back to him after a second.

“Jong says that there’s a really nice diner between here and your place,” they say. Jinki thinks, then nods. He knows the one that Jonghyun is talking about.

“Yeah,” he says. “Like, fifteen minutes from here, maybe. And then just a few minutes from there to home.”

“Okay,” Key says. Then, “Taem?” they ask softly. Jinki glances back again to see Taemin wince. “Did you hear?” Key asks. “Do you want to get lunch?” There’s a silence after that. Jinki doesn’t see or hear Taemin reply, but after a moment, Key tsks soothingly. “Okay, pretty,” they say. “What if the both of them got something and then brought it home with them?” Another pause, followed by another “Okay.” Jinki hears the soft rustling of Taemin’s plastic bag and the soft peck of Key’s lips. “Will you promise me you’ll have some bread or crackers after you’ve laid down for a bit, though?” Key asks. A third pause and a third “okay,” and when Jinki glances in the mirror again, Key is leaning back in their seat.

“No diner?” he asks, just to be sure.

“No diner,” Key confirms, hand rubbing over Taemin’s back. Jinki nods. Alright then. He doesn’t really want a big meal anyway.

“Twenty more minutes,” he tells them both. “Until home.”

True to his word, twenty minutes later, Jinki pulls the minivan slowly passed the neighbor’s side of the duplex, around the corner of his and Jonghyun’s, and brings it to a stop. He caught Choi’s car on the street outside so he doesn’t particularly hurry in getting out to unlock the front door. Jonghyun is probably pulling it open right now. Instead, he smothers a yawn in his hand and clumsily unbuckles himself. Twisting in his seat, he watches Taemin uncurling himself from the position he’d spent the past while in.

He leans back against the seat, butt slouching further towards the edge, hands rubbing over his face, palms pressing into his eyes, mouth open with deep breaths. When he lowers his hands and blearily blinks around the car, his eyes land on Jinki and stay there. Jinki gives him a little wave and little smile.

“We’re here,” he says.

“Mmmgh,” Taemin says. He closes his eyes and rubs them again before sitting up straight. “Yeah,” he breathes. His hand falls to the door, fumbles for the handle, and pushes it open. He stumbles when he gets out, but Key follows with a hand on his back and the backpack Taemin forgot over his shoulder. Jinki slips out of the car as well and stretches his arms over his head. When he circles around to the little walkway to the door, he finds Jonghyun handing Taemin a bottle of ice water with a straw in it.

“Little sips, okay?” he hums, pressing his lips to Taemin’s cheek. Taemin nods, bringing the straw to his lips with a weak hand. He looks up at the house, eyes rolling over the blue paint, the cobbled walkway, the small flowers in the windowsills. He’s been here one time before, snuck here for barely more than two hours during what he told his parents was a trip to the mall with his friends. Jinki had never seen anyone happier during that time. The contrast to Taemin then and how drained and anxious he looks now is almost painful.

Jinki looks passed him and sees Choi standing in the doorway with their usual little smile. He scoots around the other three and heads that way first.

“We cleaned up a little,” Choi signs at him, and Jinki smiles back a quick “thanks.” He and Jonghyun didn’t exactly have time to clean up in their rush yesterday. Stepping inside, he looks around the open living room and nods. Jonghyun’s notebooks and music stuff, usually strewn all over the cushioned floor, are neatly stacked in the corner where they’re actually supposed to be. The pillows and sheets are still kind of a mess, but they’re less of a mess than usual so it actually looks like a big bed for once. When he slips into the kitchen to grab himself a water, he sees that the dishes that were on the table and sink have been washed also. Nice.

He heads to his bedroom really quick to plug his phone into his charger and wiggle into some fresh clothes. By the time he gets back to the living room, Jonghyun and Key have tugged Taemin in and laid him gently down on Jonghyun’s bed. Taemin curls up small, hands gripping his water bottle tight. Key pulls a sheet up to his waist and Jonghyun pushes his hair out of his face.

“Just rest,” Jonghyun says quietly. He leans down to press a kiss to Taemin’s cheek.

“But sit up if you want to drink,” Key says. They fix the sheet up neater and stand up straight, tugging Jonghyun with them to the kitchen. Jinki follows and sits at the table next to Jonghyun, Key across. Choi helpfully hands them all a bag of chips from the counter.

“Thanks, babe,” Jonghyun says, unfolding a napkin and piling some on. Jinki does the same, while Key kind of scrunches his nose and gets up to get some dry cereal. They’re all silent for a few moments, but then, “I’m worried,” Jonghyun mumbles. He rests his palm in his chin and pouts at his chips. Jinki paps his shoulder gently.

“We all are,” Key sighs.

“Yeah, but,” Jonghyun says, and then shakes his head, sips his water. “What if he’s not okay?”

“He wasn’t okay before,” Jinki says.

“He’ll be _better_ , at least,” Key adds. Jonghyun looks between them with his teeth between his lips before he sighs and nods.

“True,” he mumbles. “Did you guys figure out how many boxes you could fit in your car?” he asks.

“I think we’re just gonna be able to take his clothes today,” Key sighs. “I forgot to take my dance bag out of the trunk this morning. Plus all of Choi’s camera stuff.” They shrug again. Jinki hums thoughtfully. They could probably fit some more of Taemin’s stuff in the clothes box, if they’re organized enough. He doesn’t have a lot; maybe a few of his games so he can distract himself from his emotions if they get to be too much.

“You can take the rest next week,” he says. They can clean out their car and he and Jonghyun can just take the leftover boxes with them on the way to The Midpoint, and then they can take it all home with them. “Or, the week after,” he adds, glancing quickly behind him into the living room. He feels like maybe Taemin won’t be up for much next week.

“Mm, yeah,” Key says, nodding easily. “Sounds good.”

“Yeah,” Jonghyun says quietly. Jinki rubs his arm soothingly. “Hmm?” Jonghyun adds at that. Jinki blinks and looks up; a sympathetic pat doesn’t strike him as a questionable gesture. Jonghyun isn’t even looking at him, though, which just makes him even more confused. “No, we don’t have mint,” Jonghyun says. Jinki blinks again and finally follows his gaze to--Choi. Oh. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Choi sighs, then signs something else that Jinki actually sees this time.

“Ginger,” he repeats slowly, looking to the fridge and trying to remember. “I think we have some, yeah,” he says, pointing. “In the middle drawer.” Choi gives him a thumbs up and moves the check the fridge themself. With them away from the stove, Jinki notices that they have two of the burners occupied. What the fuck. How did he not notice that. One of them is a small pot full of just water and the other is a pan with two pieces of bread slowly toasting inside. “What are you doing?” he asks as Choi shuts the fridge. Choi turns just enough with one hand in the utensil drawer to sign “nausea food.”

“Taemin doesn’t like the crusts,” Jonghyun says, standing up to hover over the pan with a worried little pout. Choi shrugs.

“I’ll cut them off after,” they sign. Jonghyun hums with mild disapproval.

“Also, why are you toasting bread on the stove?” he asks. This time, Choi just taps the carton of eggs that they got out with the ginger.

“Eggs aren’t good for nausea,” Key says flatly. Choi turns to point at themself with a little smirk and Jinki rolls his eyes. Of course.

“Hey, make me some too, please, Minjunggie?” Jonghyun asks, nuzzling Choi’s shoulder gently. Choi gives him a little kiss and a little smile as an answer.

Soon, Choi has a nice little lunch platter put together. A crustless peanut butter and banana toast sandwich cut into triangles with crackers and ginger tea on one side, and a heaping pile of super salted scrambled eggs on the other. They smile at it, arranging everything to be more pretty with a note of satisfaction. Then they grab the little notepad from the counter, fold over the grocery list for that week, and start scribbling a note for Taemin to read. Jonghyun pushes Choi’s plate a little to the side to try to fit his own bowl on, but when Choi sees, they shake their head and push him gently away.

“I think I should sit with him alone for a little bit,” they sign. “No offense, but you three kind of talk a lot.” Even their fingers seem as amused as their little grin when Jonghyun humphs quietly. Jonghyun still nods though, and curls his bowl of eggs close to himself as he sits back at the table.

“He doesn’t like when people watch him eat,” Key says as Choi picks up their little tray. Choi nods that they understood and steps quietly into the living room. Jinki turns to watch them step gently over Jonghyun’s bed and sit down a comfortable distance away from Taemin. He turns back after Choi waves, only to find both Jonghyun and Key still watching. He smiles, amused.

“Jonghyun, did you want to shower?” he asks. He knows that he’s not going to shower until it’s time to sleep, but Jonghyun never cares what time he gets in. Jonghyun chews his bottom lip, looks down at his eggs, shrugs.

“When I finish these,” he mumbles, stabbing a small forkful. Jinki nods. Alright then. He turns to Key, who already finished their cereal, the crispy bread crusts, and the leftover half a banana Choi offered all of them a few minutes ago.

“Wanna go see if we can fit more stuff into Taemin’s clothes box?” he asks.

“Mm, yeah, okay,” Key hums. They stand up, wash their dishes, and then follow Jinki out to the van. Jinki opens up the back and just clambers inside, pushing aside a box so he can nestle into the corner against the back of the backseat. Then he smiles and pats the space next to him. Key climbs in obediently, but comes to a hesitant stop in front of Jinki.

“Hey, um,” they say, sitting on their heels. They tug a box closer and fiddle with the tape. “Can I, like, lean on you?” they ask. “Like, against your chest. Between your legs.” Their cheeks don’t color, but their fingers tap an awkward staccato onto the box. Jinki doesn’t even hesitate before he nods, wiggling his legs out to give Key room. It's not like they've never snuggled before.

“Yeah, sure, no problem,” he says. He makes grabby hands to make Key laugh softly as they move to settle against him. They take the box with them and nuzzle just slightly into Jinki’s neck.

“It’s, just,” they mumble. “Now that Taem is safe and I’m not in mom mode _my_ anxiety is starting to get to me and it helps to have, like. Someone else’s heartbeat and breathing to match mine too.”

“It’s okay,” Jinki says softly. He knows. “You don’t have to explain yourself.” He pats Key’s side and reaches around him to pluck at the tape on the box. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to tape them all up anyway. It’s not like a few hours on the highway are particularly bumpy.

“Yeah, well,” Key mumbles. They bat Jinki’s hands away and stab a pocket knife into the tape instead, slicing it open easily. “Usually I’m on Choi, but. They’re kinda busy at-- _oh_ , Jinx,” they say, voice turning from quiet and hesitant to judging and disappointed. “You three just _folded_ everything?” they ask. Jinki frowns, very much noticing their distasteful little frown.

“I--yes?” he says. They folded the clothes and packed them neatly inside of the box. A perfectly sensible and organized thing to do. Key still sighs, though, and shakes their head as they pull some things out.

“You’re supposed to _roll_ clothes when you’re packing things,” they say disapprovingly. Jinki has no idea what the fuck they mean by that, and he says that very defensively. In reply, Key pats his head and starts rolling.

Some half hour later, after a lot of rolling on Key’s part and grumbling on Jinki’s part, they have several smaller bags full of Taemin’s stuff packed into the box as well. As they clamber out of the van Jinki pats both the box and Key’s shoulder before he shuts the trunk and locks it up.

Inside, they find the kitchen empty, but all three of the others sat on Jonghyun’s bed. Taemin is sitting with his back to the couch and his knees hugged to his chest with his mug of tea held between both hands. His straw is in there now instead of in his water. Choi is sitting across from him, slowly signing the end of a sentence. Taemin’s brows furrow, teeth between his bottom lip.

“That’s… please be quiet?” he says, tone raising uncertainly at the end. Choi shakes their head; Jonghyun nuzzles Taemin’s shoulder, messing up his shower-damp hair.

“Don’t be so loud,” he corrects. “Like, _quieter,_ but you don’t have to be completely silent.”

“Oh,” Taemin says, and oh, Jinki thinks. Okay. They’re teaching Taemin some of the general important things first. Good idea. He slips his shoes off and makes his way around them, stepping carefully over the soft bedding. He waves pleasantly when the other three look up at him and Key, then sits himself down comfortably next to Jonghyun. Key takes a seat on Taemin’s other side and pulls another pillow from the couch to hold in their arms.

“Hi,” Taemin says quietly.

“Hi,” Jinki mumbles back. He looks at the little food tray between the four of them and Choi and sees two crackers and half of Taemin’s sandwich left. Well. At least he ate some. He reaches forward slowly and kind of just takes a cracker when no one moves to stop him.

“Feeling better?” Key asks. Taemin opens his mouth, shakes his head, shrugs, and closes it with a slow breath.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t think... I’m feeling anything... except tired.” He sips his tea with his straw and makes a little noise when a few drips fall out and onto his shirt. Jinki puts his chin on Jonghyun’s shoulder thoughtfully. Makes sense, he guesses. A pity that once he has a night’s rest it’ll be the day that his parents find out. His anxiety will tire him out again immediately. At least right now, he might be able to sleep through the trip to Key and Choi’s place and avoid another ride with a rumbly tummy.

“Um… Kibummie?” Taemin asks. “And, Choi?” His voice is muffled; when Jinki looks up, he’s biting the rim of his mug, staring inside instead of at the two he’s trying to speak to. “Um,” he says again. “Do you think… maybe… can we spend the night here?” he asks. “Please?” His eyes are big when he peeps up. Jinki’s own eyes widen too at the question.

“Really?” he asks. “I thought you wanted to get as far away as soon as possible.” That was the plan, has been the plan from the start. Get Taemin, a quick lunch here, and then send him off to live even further away from his parents. To add another two and a half hours to the hour and a half between them and here.

“I know, but,” Taemin says, voice tight. “I can't--I _need_.” He puts his mug down and takes Jonghyun’s hand in one hand and Key’s hand in the other. “I need both of you,” he whispers into his knees. Key lifts their free hand to run soothingly through his hair. “And… you two. Too.” Taemin adds. He looks between Jinki and Choi pleadingly. “Just… just for tonight,” he says. He sounds almost desperate but Jinki is already shrugging and nodding. Whatever makes Taemin feel the best. Jonghyun nods also.

“It’s kind of late, anyway,” he says. “It might be dark before you get home.” He gestures out of the window at the perfectly sunny afternoon; Jinki muffles a snort into his shoulder. Even with his night driving phobia that’s kind of pushing it.

“Before six thirty?” Kibum asks flatly.

Choi throws their crumpled up napkin at their head.

“Hey-- _what?_ ” Key hisses, grabbing it and chucking it back at them. “I wasn’t telling him _no,_ ” they grumble. “Just, like, if you’re gonna come up with a bullshit excuse then at least put some effort into it.” Choi just smirks at them and fakes throwing the napkin again. Key winces, then glares. Their annoyed half growl is interrupted by Taemin speaking.

“So,” he says. “You’ll stay here?” His voice shakes just a touch, so little that Jinki barely caught it. Key takes their annoyed glare away from Choi, softening it into a reassuring nod.

“Yeah,” they say. “We’ll stay here. With you.”

“With me,” Taemin repeats. Jinki nods even though no one is looking. With him. The babe of ages, the MVP.

“A slumber party,” Jonghyun gasps softly. He claps his little hands together with bright eyes. “Videogames and movies and pizza.” He bounces a little bit on the pillows; Jinki smiles, amused, but also sighs because he has to be the one to remind Jonghyun of the bad news.

“The gluten-free pizza place closed down last month, remember?” he says. There is no deliverable pizza for Jonghyun’s poor tum. Jonghyun’s bouncing immediately stops.

“Oh,” he says, and deflates against Taemin’s side. “Fuck.”

“I can make quesadillas,” Key says. “With… whatever ingredients you two have.” They lean forward so they can peer at Jonghyun around Taemin. Jonghyun gasps loudly and starts bouncing again.

“Videogames and movies and quesadillas,” he chirps, clapping softly.

“God, you’re so cute,” Taemin breathes. He turns to wrap his arms around Jonghyun’s shoulders and squeeze him tight enough to make him squeak and giggle. Jinki smiles as he watches Jonghyun nuzzle the side of Taemin’s head. They’re both cute. And after a moment, Taemin’s tight squeeze turns into more of a relaxed hold, fingers pressing just into the back of Jonghyun’s shirt. Jinki hears the faintest little kissie noises from Jonghyun’s neck and more mumbled words that he can’t catch. What he does catch is the tone: low and flattering, just a touch amused. It puts some of his worries at ease.

Right now, in this moment, Taemin is feeling okay enough to smile and hold his babe and murmur love into his skin. It won’t last, but it’s the first time since yesterday, and that’s a start.

The rest of the night goes well and simple. Jonghyun clambers across the floor first to look through their games and pick out a cute multiplayer one. Taemin takes the other half of his sandwich to nibble on before Choi takes the dishes away to wash. When they get back, they drape themself over the couch behind everyone and leave a hand dangling off of the edge. When Key cocks a brow and asks if it’s for Jonghyun to hold or for someone to put a controller into, they smirk and sign “both.”

They rotate through the game for a few hours that feel like minutes, and another half hour that feels like a day after it starts getting boring. It’s then that Key just gets up and heads to the kitchen, mumbling something about quesadillas that has Jonghyun bright and bouncy again. Jinki watches both of them go, then Taemin and Choi both lazily staring at the ceiling, and decides that now is as good a time as ever to take a shower.

He gets back conveniently just in time to steal a fresh cut slice of cheesy goodness as soon as Key puts the plate on the table. Nice. He has it an inch from his mouth when a hand closes around his wrist and Jonghyun’s pouty face appears in front of him.

“Hey,” he whines. “That’s mine.” He tugs weakly at Jinki’s wrist with his usual puppy eyes and Jinki finds himself just smiling fondly.

“I wasn't thinking, sorry,” he says. It’s Jonghyun’s only OCD thing that actually affects other people; he has to have the first bite of something or else he can’t eat comfortably. Jonghyun wiggles, a whiny noise in the back of his throat, and Jinki surrenders his slice easily. He takes the second slice of dinner and pats Jonghyun’s butt to make him smile.

“Hey, go grab Choi and Taem,” Key tells them. “And get a napkin or something, holy shit.” They flap a hand distractedly between them and turn back to the stove where Jinki can see that they have a second quesadilla already almost done in a second pan. What the fuck.

“What is it with those two and multitasking in the kitchen,” he mutters to Jonghyun as they grab napkins and leave the room. First Choi, now Key both using two burners at once. It’s so extra. Jinki can’t even pour himself a drink and watch the stove at the same time without anything burning. Jonghyun shrugs back, just as clueless as he is. Jinki hums thoughtfully. Obviously neither of them have their lives as together as they thought.

In the living room, Choi and Taemin are hunched over the movie box. Jinki wiggles to a sit next to Taemin, Jonghyun getting to his knees on Choi’s other side.

“Dinner’s ready,” Jinki says, wiggling his napkin. Taemin gasps softly and Jonghyun snatches his own napkin away from Choi’s questing hand with a little whine.

“Give us another minute,” Taemin mumbles. “We’re narrowing it down.” He gestures to the little group of movies laid out next to each other on the tv cabinet. Cars, Charlie’s Angels, The Road to El Dorado, and Chicago… an interesting set of choices.

“How did we get down to all of these?” he asks blankly. He can’t find a similarity between them. Taemin shrugs and pats the space in front of Choi’s knee.

“They’re picking, mostly,” he says. Jinki glances at them; they quickly sign “no parents”  over Taemin’s head with a pointed look. Jinki understands immediately and nods his approval.

“Well,” he says. “I vote for El Dorado, if that matters.” He loves Miguel. He stands up and pokes Taemin’s cheek to remind him that it’s dinnertime before he scoots back into the kitchen. There, he struggles to both eat his first slice and help Key set up the rest of the table with one hand. He should’ve just waited five minutes before getting all grabby at the food.

“This would be easier if you had just waited, like, five minutes for everything to be ready first,” Key tells him, confirming his thought. Their little cocked brow is entirely unamusing to Jinki and he humphs as he takes a big, defiant bite of his slice.

That just makes it harder to do things.

Jonghyun comes in to help soon, followed closely by the other two. Taemin pours everyone drinks with hands that only shake a little bit and when they all finally sit around the table, he has the tiniest smile. Jinki thinks it feels a little awkward; this table isn’t meant for five people and it feels like the same generic family dinners he had for twenty-two years before he moved out. But, whatever. He likes these four much more and Taemin’s comfort is what’s most important to him right now anyway.

“So…,” Jonghyun says after a minute. He sips his milk with his pinky out and props his chin in his hand. “Do all of you lovely babes wanna go out to breakfast tomorrow?” he asks. He flutters his lashes too, for added effect that only makes Choi snort.

“I think… a breakfast date would be good,” Taemin says quietly. He’s picking slowly at a small slice of quesadilla, but looks hopeful at the thought of a diner meal. Maybe he’ll be feeling better about eating tomorrow.

“I’m down for it,” Jinki shrugs. His lukewarm leftover omelette from this morning has had him kind of craving a fresh served breakfast all day. Choi nods simply and Key agrees a moment after, and Jonghyun beams.

“Alright,” he says happily. “And then, after, you three can go home.” He links his arm with Taemin’s and shakes him gently. Jinki raises his brows, impressed. That was smooth, bringing up a heavy plan right after the pep of a light one. Taemin still hesitates, still takes a deep, shaky breath, but he nods with a small smile very quickly after.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I think… straight from the diner. Because. If we stop back here after, like. You all know I’ll procrastinate for three more hours.” His smile twitches feebly and he places his quesadilla slice down on his plate. Jonghyun squeezes him comfortingly.

“Good idea,” he hums, and presses the tiniest of kisses to Taemin’s cheek.

“Mm. Thanks,” Taemin says. Jinki catches the way he catches Jonghyun’s elbow when he tries to pull his arm back. Jonghyun stays, and scoots his chair an inch closer. Taemin reaches a small hand out for Key’s elbow as well and rubs his thumb over their skin.

“How are you supposed to eat if you’re holding both of us?” Key asks, smiling lazily at him and wiggling their arm. Taemin opens his mouth, hesitates, and then lets his head fall on Jonghyun’s shoulder.

“Feed me,” he demands, nuzzling the top of his head into Jonghyun’s neck obnoxiously. Jinki snorts; so do Choi and Jonghyun. Jonghyun pushes Taemin’s head back up and pokes his cheek away.

“You’re gross,” he mumbles.

“Here, Taem,” Key says, already holding up Taemin’s quesadilla slice to his mouth. Taemin takes a second to stick his tongue out at Jonghyun before he takes a tiny nibble and nuzzles gently into the hand Key ruffles through his hair a moment later.

“You’re all gross,” Jinki mumbles, but there’s nothing with fondness in his voice as he watches the three of them. They’re cute.

And then they start getting _really_ cute, both of them feeding Taemin both food and little kisses, all sappy smiles and soft blushes, and Jinki’s fondness turns into exasperation and uncomfort.

“Alright, now you’re _actually_ being gross,” he says, shaking his head as he finishes his last slice and stands up. His repulsion can’t handle this. He washes his dishes and ignores their little grumbles in favor of taking Choi’s plate as well. Then he takes Choi with him back to Jonghyun’s bed to set up the movie Taemin picked. It’s not El Dorado, which disappoints him, but whatever. He’s pretty tired anyway; it’s barely passed nine but his long day is catching up to him.

The other three join them before long, Jonghyun laying down next to Jinki, then Taemin next to him, and then Key next to him. Choi takes up their one-hand-dangling position on couch again. They start the movie and Jinki pulls a thin sheet over himself, tugging some of Jonghyun’s extra pillows close to nestle into.

It’s not long before his eyes are drooping shut. The low volume of the movie fades in and out, sounding distant and muffled one moment and then clear and crisp the next as his brain drifts between sleep and wakefulness. Curled up on his side, he clings to the pillow under his chin, glad to be finally drifting off, until there’s sudden rustling and grumbling from behind him and some words that he can barely make out in Taemin’s voice:

“Mmgh. Too stuffy.”

And then more rustling, and then there are hands wrapping around his side and a body pressing up against his back and soft lips dropping kisses onto his neck as Jonghyun switches to hold him close instead. Jinki grumbles himself, wiggling and rolling onto his back to shake him off. That earns him a quiet, apologetic noise.

“Too ro?” Jonghyun asks quietly. Jinki shakes his head, pats Jonghyun’s hand.

“Too tight,” he mumbles.

“Oh,” Jonghyun says, and then giggles. “Sorry, bun,” he says, and slips his arm over Jinki’s waist again. He’s much gentler now and Jinki sighs contentedly as he nuzzles back into his pillow.

This time when he starts drifting in and out of consciousness, he makes it all the way there uninterrupted and falls asleep with Jonghyun’s head on his chest.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You okay?” Jinki asks softly. Taemin blinks quickly, looks up at him, looks back down.  
> “I… think so,” he mumbles. “I don’t know.” He picks up his water with both hands to take a little sip. “They’re coming home today,” he says quietly.
> 
> **Still Tw for anxiety, abuse, emetophobia and some sex talks**

****The morning is… weird, Jinki would say. Not bad--or, at least, not as bad as yesterday morning. Taemin still had nightmares in the middle of the night, Jonghyun tossed and turned with other people around him, Key kept waking up at the lightest things, and Jinki’s back hurts more than usual from two nights of weird sleep in a row. And Choi, the heavy sleeper smug asshole that passed out and stayed out, signs the laziest, comfortablest “good morning” to him when he lifts his sleep-bleary eyes up to them on the couch. What an anus.

But still. It’s better. Because when Jinki finally wakes up all the way, sits up, and rubs his eyes, they land on Taemin. Curled up tight and cuddling a pillow under his chin with the blankets up to his shoulders, his sleeping face is calm and relaxed. His sleep, for now at least, is peaceful.

After staring at Taemin for a few more moments, he decides that he doesn’t want to wake up yet. The other two are up and gone already, but _he_ doesn’t technically need to be if Taemin isn’t up yet anyway. He wiggles back down under the covers and pulls them over his head, ignoring Choi’s soft snort above him.

The next time he wakes up, Taemin is gone from the blankets, which makes him sigh. Now he has no excuse. He rolls to his back and rubs his hands over his face, stretches until his back cracks, and then immediately regrets that. He needs his meds. Pushing himself up, he shuffles passed the kitchen, waving lazily at Choi and Key, and makes his way to his bedroom.

He’s tired and groggy; that’s the only explanation he can give as to why he was able to walk in there, take his pills, scribble down a note in his journal that he skipped yesterday, put on new clothes, and trudge all the way to his bathroom to pee without noticing the low voices coming from the open door.

As it is, he pauses when he finally does see Jonghyun and Taemin in his bathroom. Taemin with wet hair and only loose sweatpants too low around his hips, back all bare except the little mole on his left side, and Jonghyun with his chin on Taemin’s shoulder and arms around his waist, both standing very close together. Jinki guesses he should be glad that they’re facing the mirror, backs to him. He doesn’t think he wants to see what Jonghyun’s left hand is doing in front of the sink that has Taemin’s fingers gripping tightly to the tile.

“F-fuck, fuck,” Taemin hisses, head dropping low between his shoulders, eyes squeezed shut.

“A good idea, right?” Jonghyun hums, murmurs it into Taemin’s ear. “All the time in the world… and every day, or every _week_ , dedicated to me making you come in a different way.” He does something that makes Taemin’s breath stutter, his body twitch; Jinki rolls his eyes. Holy shit. Jonghyun looks way too proud of himself in the mirror right now. “You know I wouldn't get tired of it,” Jonghyun whispers. “You’d never feel anything but bliss, but _me_ , me and you.”

“Oh my god,” Taemin breathes. Jinki barely refrains from saying the same himself. This is just. Something.

“Look,” Jonghyun says, and his eyes lift from Taemin’s shaky hands to the mirror. First they stay centered; then he notices Jinki behind them and pauses, staring blankly.

Jinki cocks a brow and gestures pointedly at the door that Jonghyun again left wide open, no warning or privacy or anything.

Jonghyun nods his head towards it in a clear, silent order for him to leave.

Jinki rolls his eyes very exaggeratedly this time as he turns and leaves, just to show Jonghyun how much he’s being judged right now. As he walks, he hears Jonghyun pick up right where he left off: “Look at yourself, Taemin, look at how gorgeous you look like this.”

Inspirational.

He pees and freshens up in the little hallway bathroom instead, then shuffles into the kitchen to find the other two still in there, sipping little cups of coffee and trying to figure out the morning sudoku puzzle together.

“Hey,” he says, nodding at their little waves. Shaking his head when they offer him the coffee pot, he gets a little juice box from the fridge. Coffee makes him feel dead on the inside.

“Is Taem okay, do you know?” Key asks. “Jong said he was gonna go check up on him.” Jinki glances at them and snorts. What an understatement.

“Yeah, he’s… giving Taemin a pep talk,” he says. He stabs his straw into his juice box with more gusto than usual to stop himself  from miming jerking off. Choi doesn’t need that sex repulsion so early in the morning. He gives Key a pointed look anyway when Choi isn’t looking so they can both share an eyeroll. He just wants breakfast.

“Hey,” Key mumbles after a minute. They’re in their phone, but they look up quickly. “Where’s the restaurant again?” they ask, handing it to him. Jinki takes it and looks at the little maps app they have open. Ahh.

“It’s just, like, down the main street,” he says, scrolling through the map to find it. “And left at the auto parts store, and you know that haunted house we all went to last Halloween? It’s across from that.” He taps the location on Key’s phone and hands it back with a shrug. “Just follow me. It’s like ten minutes, tops.”

And ten minutes later, Jonghyun comes waltzing pleasantly down the hallway, Taemin trailing behind him with a badly concealed hickey peeping out from the collar of his shirt. Jinki rolls his eyes, grabs his wallet and keys, and jingles them towards the door.

“Are we ready?” he asks, and by “we,” he means Taemin. The other three nod, and after a moment of hesitation, Taemin does as well. He has his backpack over his shoulder and Jinki is pretty sure that the only reason he doesn’t insist on checking Jonghyun’s bed and the bathroom three more times for anything he could have possibly forgotten is because he’s still kind of dazed from Jonghyun’s hand. He bets Jonghyun is all smug about that, too.

“Alright then,” he says, stepping backwards to the front door and sweeping it open. “Let’s go.”

Picking cars is even simpler this time; Key needs to go with Choi to follow the directions and Jonghyun clambers into the backseat of Jinki’s van with Taemin to “snuggle him as much as possible to make up for lost time.” Jinki snorts and lets Taemin pat Jonghyun’s hair fondly for him. Jonghyun would have to cling to Taemin for a few years straight to make up for all of their lost time. Which, actually, he can very easily see Jonghyun doing.

The ride is quick and Jinki parks in one of the few spots behind the building to give them a little more privacy during their goodbyes. When Choi and Key show up barely a minute after them, they all troop into the diner and don’t have to wait at all for a table. On the way to it, Choi pauses for a second with an excited little noise. They grab a coloring sheet off of the host podium and once they’re all seated, tug Key’s bag closer and pull out some colored pencils.

“Not the free crayons?” Jinki asks, amused. Choi’s only reply is a disgusted scowl. Jinki snorts. Same. He doesn’t even like good quality crayons.

“Ooh, use that pink,” Jonghyun says, leaning against Choi’s shoulder to poke a pretty pale shade. Choi tugs it out of the box and boops Jonghyun’s nose with it before getting to their coloring. Jonghyun giggles, then hurriedly reaches to take a sip of his free water before Key does first, and then pulls up his menu. Jinki opens up his menu as well. He loves everything at this place and it’s always an ordeal trying to figure out what to get.

Eventually he does, just in time for their server to take their orders. That all goes smoothly and soon Jinki is just watching everyone else with his chin propped in his hand. Choi is engrossed in their coloring, Key is chewing on their lip and poking through a few chapters of some romance app on their phone, Jonghyun is watching them with the most judgemental tsks at their choices, and Taemin is sitting quietly, staring at his fingers as they draw slow little patterns onto the wooden table. Jinki turns a few degrees to face him.

“You okay?” he asks softly. Taemin blinks quickly, looks up at him, looks back down.

“I… think so,” he mumbles. “I don’t know.” He picks up his water with both hands to take a little sip. “They’re coming home today,” he says quietly. Jinki hums knowingly. This isn’t a surprise but he still doesn’t know what to say. Thankfully, Key seems to have overheard and has put their phone down in favor of fixing Taemin’s hair.

“You’ll be okay,” they say. “They won’t be back until almost midnight. By then you’ll be home in bed. With me.” Their lips curve into a pleased little smile as they gently squish Taemin’s cheek.

“Yeah,” Jonghyun says. “You’ll be far away with no way to track you. You’ll be safe.” Jinki nods and sees Choi doing the same out of the corner of his eye. Taemin hums shortly and plucks at the little tape holding his utensils together in their napkin.

“Mmm, yeah,” he mumbles. “I’ll… be safe.” He clenches his fist and presses it against the table. “I’ll be safe, and… I’ll be able to… to talk to you, at night. And whenever I want.” His eyes flick up to Key and to Jonghyun. “No more leaving my phone with them at night so they can read all of my messages. And….” His eyes go wide slowly. “I’m gonna google whatever I want without going through fifty parental security blocks and still being anxious about it,” he says. “And I’m gonna close my fucking bedroom door if I want to.” His voice gets stronger, louder.

“I’m gonna have _privacy._ I’m gonna eat what I want and no one’s gonna make me feel guilty about it. I’m gonna--I’m gonna _do shit_ without being constantly criticized for literally everything. I’m not gonna feel guilty for existing anymore. I’m gonna get a _job-_ -or, like, I’m too much of an anxious mess to actually get one but--I’m at least going to be able to fucking _try_ to get a _job_ , to get _money_ for _myself,”_ Taemin declares. Jinki nods in approval. This is a good rant that he’s going on. “I’m gonna dress how I want,” Taemin says.

“Yeah,” Jinki says softly.

“I’m gonna figure out my fucking gender!”

“Yeah,” Jonghyun says loudly.

“I’m gonna _dance!_ ”

“ _Fuck yeah_!”” Key shouts, Choi banging their fists against the table in agreement.

“Okay, hey, whoa,” Jinki says, waving his hand at them and glancing around at the tables of people that are looking their way. “We’re kind of in public here,” he reminds them.

“Oh, fuck, right,” Key says, cheeks going a vibrant pink. Jonghyun muffles guilty giggles into his hands and Choi has the memory to nod apologetically at the people at the table next to them. Jinki grins amusedly at all of them. Taemin is breathing heavily, fist still clenched on the table, face flushed.

“I’m gonna,” he says, voice back to just above a breath. His excitement-fuelled smile is dying down quickly to a nervous swallow. “I’m gonna,” he repeats, and puts his hand to his forehead. “God, I’m gonna--” He stands up and leaves the table, heading towards the bathrooms very quickly. Jinki looks blankly after him. For a moment, everyone is silent. Then Jonghyun shivers violently and shakes his head, making the most uncomfortable noise and pushing his palms into his eyes.

Jinki reaches across the table to pat his arm sympathetically while Choi rubs his back and Key offers him his water. What an unlucky coincidence to have a nauseous boyfriend and emetophobia at the same time. They coo at Jonghyun soothingly until he waves them off, mumbling something tiny that no one catches but everyone takes as a reassurance that he’s fine. Taemin returns not long after that, smelling like fancy bathroom soap and collapsing into his chair with a little groan.

“Hi,” he mumbles. Jinki mumbles a “hi” back. Taemin leans back in his chair and breathes deeply towards the ceiling, then rights himself and rests his elbows on the table.

“Hi,” he says again. He plays with the little sugar packet tray in the middle of the table, creeps his hand forward until it’s in front of Jonghyun, taps the table gently. “If it makes you feel any better,” he says. “I didn’t, actually.” He shrugs without saying the words. Jonghyun winces, but nods with a grateful little smile. It makes sense, Jinki guesses. Nothing in his stomach yet to come back up. Taemin curls his hand back around his cup of water and jiggles the ice inside slowly.

“I’m gonna be okay,” he whispers. Out of all the times that’s been said to him over the past two and a half days, Jinki thinks he might actually be starting to believe it.

The rest of breakfast is extremely pleasant, considering everything else that’s looming ahead. Jonghyun makes an extra loud sigh at one of Key’s choices in their romance app, drawing everyone’s attention. The whole rest of the time, from when they get their food to when they get their check, is spent discussing and analyzing Key’s fictional romance life and every possible thing they could say to their fictional boyfriend.

Jonghyun seems to think that Key is ruining their soul by picking the Dark magic choices and Key keeps whining that they’re only picking them when it’s better for the mission. Choi has flipped their coloring sheet over and is aggressively drawing what looks like a character alignment chart to explain to Jonghyun that Key is just being neutral good and demand that he stop shaming their choices. Jinki leans halfway across the table to tell Key to pick the shitty pun answers every time. Taemin leans on his palm and pouts and make suggestions that would change Key’s affections from the douchey player character they’re focusing on romancing to the cute best friend character he’s ignoring instead.

It’s a good time, and it stays a good time all the way through the bill, the tip, and the walk to the car. Everyone leans over Key’s shoulders as they leave the restaurant to watch them play. It’s only when they've reached the cars that everyone seems to slow down. When Jinki pops the trunk of the minivan and Key’s phone disappears into their pocket, everything comes to a stop.

Jinki eases himself into the back of the van to sit, rubbing his hands over his thighs slowly. Choi pops the trunk of their own car, also standing back to let the other three have their moment. Sharing a glance with them, Jinki wonders when he’ll be close enough to Taemin to feel needed in moments like these. It hits him suddenly that Choi will probably reach that point first, since it’s their place that Taemin will be staying at. The thought makes Jinki feel detached, somehow. Like he’s just… not important.

And it kind of hurts.

As Jonghyun stands in front of Taemin, hugging himself self-consciously and looking at a loss for words, it’s Taemin that steps forward and wraps his arms around him first. He holds Jonghyun close, pressing little kisses to his hair and rubbing one hand soothingly over his back. His other hand shakes even as he twists it into Jonghyun’s shirt.

“It’ll only be a week,” he says quietly. “And then we’ll see each other again.” It’s weird to see Taemin be the comforting one for once. Not in a bad way; it’s cute, how Jonghyun whines little noises into his neck and clings tighter. At least Jonghyun he understands. Taemin is finally free and able to be with him and they had a whole weekend of no hiding, no rushed and secret meetups, no constant longing for touch… and now Taemin is leaving to live even _further_ away than before and it all feels so sudden. It’s harsh.

But, still. Taemin is right. One day once a week on a schedule is way more than a few hours months in between on short notice.

Jonghyun doesn’t look like he’s going to let go any time soon, so Jinki quietly reaches behind him in the van to tug Taemin’s clothes box forward. Choi and Key catch on to what he’s doing and both silently move to help, Choi rearranging some stuff in the trunk of their little prius and Key hoisting the box into their arms. It’s still minutes after that before they finally part. Jonghyun takes a deep, sudden breath, wrenching himself out of Taemin’s arms.

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” he mutters. “I can’t keep--I’ll never fucking let go, I’m sorry.” He shakes his head and rubs his hands over his face. Jinki snorts; He knows that Jonghyun isn’t even exaggerating. Sometimes he has Jonghyun latched onto him for an entire day when he’s feeling particularly needy and he knows that none of those times has ever matched the desperation that he’s feeling now. “Just--” Jonghyun hisses, and reaches forward to tug Taemin down by his collar. He pushes the messiest, most uncoordinated kiss to his mouth and pushes him away again. “I’ll see you in a week,” he breathes, and strides purposefully towards the minivan’s passenger seat.

Jinki hears him repeating that promise to himself under his breath as he passes and shakes his head fondly. He’ll make it through. He might tackle Taemin as soon as he shows up at The Midpoint next week, but he’ll make it through. With the door slammed shut behind Jonghyun and Choi’s car trunk closed as well, Jinki hums to himself as he wiggles back to his feet. Looks like it’s time to go home. He catches Taemin looking nervously at him and smiles, offering his hand for lack of a better idea. Hugging him right now after that long ass embrace with Jonghyun feels like it would kind of steal the importance, Jinki thinks, so--

Taemin takes his hand and pulls him forward until his arms are wrapped tight around his shoulders.

Oh, Jinki thinks.

This feels somehow familiar. He slips his arms around Taemin’s waist, not quite sure how tightly he should hug back. Taemin removes that responsibility from him by squeezing him only once and pulling away.

“Thanks,” he says quietly. His hands stay on Jinki’s elbows and his eyes on the collar of his shirt. Jinki falls into a grin, a shrug, his default when faced with gratitude he never really learned how to handle.

“Yeah, well,” he says. “Don’t mention it.” It wasn’t anything that wasn’t worth the trouble He was mostly just a car ride.

“No, Jinki, really,” Taemin says insistently. His eyes lift to meet Jinki’s with a silent intensity. “ _Thank you_. Your help and support and... .” He pauses to search for a word, shrugs, gestures around them, at Jinki’s car, and at Jinki himself. “And everything,” he says. “Mean a lot to me. _You_ mean a lot to me.”

For someone that was just wishing he was important to Taemin, he sure is at a loss for words now that Taemin is telling him that he is. Fuck. He stutters for a moment, rubs the side of his neck, and shrugs awkwardly.

“Okay, um,” he says. “Then, you’re welcome.” He guesses. Yeah. Fuck, he’s so bad at this. He can never accept gratitude with grace. It’s why he’s always either super smug or super nonchalant about things. He still doesn’t even believe that he did anything extra special. “Um,” he says again. “I’ll see you next week.” He only barely keeps his voice from rising in question at the end. He wants to look like he’s at least less flustered than he really is on the inside. Taemin looks at him for a moment, then smiles very small and nods, stepping back.

“Yeah,” he says. And then they both stand there, smiling awkwardly at each other, until Key comes up to take Taemin’s shoulders with a roll of their eyes.

“You two _need_ to hang out more,” they mutter. Taemin pouts as Key shoos him to Choi’s car; Jinki scrunches up his face and scuffs the ground with his foot. He knows that. And he will next week, definitely. “Anyway, Jinx,” Key says, and the next thing he knows he’s being pulled into another gentle, one-armed hug. “Bye,” Key hums. Jinki manages to shake himself out of his insecurity to squeeze him back with a grin.

“Bye,” he says, and then turns to wave the same thing to Choi. They’re leaning up against Jinki’s passenger side and smiling soft teases at Jonghyun through the window, but when they notice, they straighten up and wave back. Jinki catches Jonghyun’s little hand reaching out to grab Choi’s wrist and pull them back for a quick kiss while he settles himself into the driver’s seat. Once he has his seatbelt buckled, he turns to face Jonghyun, who’s turned to face Choi’s car with a watery little pout.

“Okay, koala boy, we have to be in the car first before you can cling to me,” Key’s voice is saying, and Jinki snorts softly. He reaches over to nudge Jonghyun’s shoulder until he turns to look at him.

“If we leave first you won’t have to see him drive away,” he says. Jonghyun gasps softly.

“Yes, yes, that is a good plan, please,” he says, fumbling quickly to buckle his seatbelt. Jinki shakes his head fondly as he starts the car. Jonghyun was the same way when Choi first moved away to live with Key and be closer to their job at the time. Poor babe. Eventually they’re all gonna live together and he’ll never have to see his babes leave him every week anymore. It’ll be another few years, at the very least least, but still.

“Byeeee,” Jonghyun calls as Jinki backs out of the parking lot, leaning half out of his window and sounding extremely put out. He slumps back into his seat with a little whine, wiggling his shoes off so he can hug his knees to his chest. Jinki reaches over at the first stoplight to floof his hair, boop his cheek, rub his shoulder.

“You’re cute,” he says softly. Jonghyun blushes a faint pink and buries his face in his knees. Jinki grins to himself. Nailed it. The rest of the ride home is silent and calm. Jinki thinks he’s going to get inside, stock up some snacks, go pee, and then lie in bed with his heating pad so he doesn’t die at work tomorrow.

Work tomorrow, he thinks. Guh. It’s so weird thinking about that, how surreal it is that he literally just helped a friend escape their abusive hellhole but still has to be back at his regular generic job in the morning.

Also, his plan to pee reminds him of something as he rolls the car back into their duplex and around the corner.

“Hey,” he says, reaching over to poke Jonghyun to both let him know that they’re home and to get his attention. Jonghyun hums in response as he untangles himself from his seat belt. Jinki undoes his, then glances at him curiously. “When you said, ‘each week dedicated to making you jizz in a different way,’” he says slowly, smirking when Jonghyun looks first confused and then understanding and sheepish. “Did you mean, like, you were just gonna take him away every weekend to bang, or, like--”

“No, no, no,” Jonghyun says, shaking his head with a snort. “Just me and him in our own little, like, alternate bang universe, without your three ace asses so we wouldn’t bother you or whatever,” he waves his hand dismissively as he gets out of the car. Jinki rolls his eyes. Holy shit. How thoughtful.

“You’re ace too,” he points out, to which Jonghyun just waves dismissively at again.

“And, like,” Jonghyun says when they meet up again on the walkway to their front door. “Every week, like. It would be, like, a week for just heavy petting, and then another for handjobs, and then a week straight of me blowing him, and then rimming would be next, or--no, the balls, or--I mean--I don’t know, like… the… specifics, or….” He trails off with a shady mumble that makes Jinki think that he knows exactly what the specifics of his endless sex fantasy are. He shakes his head fondly as he unlocks the door and shoulders it open.

“Wow,” he says. Jonghyun humphs at him. _“Could_ you even just jerk him off for a week and not get bored of that?” he asks. Like, there’s only so much you can do with a handy, so much escalation before you’re run out of options.

“Listen,” Jonghyun says, leaning on the door to close it behind him and cocking a brow at Jinki. “I could spend a whole _month_ just figuring out the different ways I could hold his _hand_ and not get tired of it.” That statement is followed by a long silence. Jonghyun stares at Jinki, looking increasingly dreamy as his eyes slip out of focus. Jinki stares back, exasperated and fond.

“You’re so fucking ro,” he says after another few moments where Jonghyun actually starts holding his own hands and biting back a soft smile. Jonghyun blinks back into reality, his blissful smile turning into more of a smirk.

“Thanks,” he says, winking at Jinki as he brushes passed into the living room. “Now if you’ll excuse me,” he says, kicking some pillows into more suitable places. “I am going to enjoy having my whole space to myself again and also stare at my phone for the next several minutes to several hours until Gwi texts me back.”

“Hey, can you--” Jinki says quickly, reaching out a hand before Jonghyun can sit down. “Can you put my heating pad on my back first?” he asks. He always sucks at getting it in the perfect spot himself. Jonghyun nods immediately, no objection.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” he says. “I’ll go find it.” He pats Jinki’s butt as he passes on the way to his room. Jinki rolls his eyes, but smiles. He’s so fucking cute. Grabbing some chips and a banana from the kitchen, he peeps into his room, throws them onto his desk over Jonghyun, and slips into the bathroom to pee. When he comes back out, he drapes himself leisurely over his bed on his stomach and wiggles up to nuzzle his pillow. Jonghyun kisses his cheek before he even looks up and Jinki feels his soul expanding with satisfaction already. He loves when Jonghyun helps him like this, with the simple favors. A little bit out of the way to make a big difference. They mean the most to him.

“Low?” Jonghyun asks, wiggling the plug into the wall. Jinki hums, wiggles just enough to make the usual dull ache more obvious, winces, and shrugs.

“Medium, for now,” he says. He can turn it back to low if he needs to. Jonghyun makes a worried noise as he sets the temperature and places it gently over Jinki’s upper back. He rubs where Jinki’s shoulders meet his neck gently, soothing the usual spots a tiny bit.

“Be careful,” he mumbles, leaning down to press another kiss to Jinki’s cheek. Jinki laughs softly. Lying in bed isn't exactly the most dangerous thing. Still, he nods.

“I will,” he promises, just to ease Jonghyun’s worry. Jonghyun pushes his water bottle closer to him and tucks the heating pad remote gently under his pillow.

“Okay,” he hums. “I’ll be back to let you know how they’re doing later. Gwi says they’re gonna try to get Taemin a new phone today.”

“Mmhmm,” Jinki hums. Suddenly he’s too tired and comfy to make words. He squeezes Jonghyun’s hand before he leaves, then holds his pillow close and nuzzles into it. He keeps himself awake just long enough for the alarm Jonghyun set on his phone to go off. Then he turns off his heating pad and gently slips it off so he doesn’t melt into the bed. From there, he’s settled comfortably on his side and passed out in less than five minutes.

When he blinks blearily awake again, tired and groggy, his phone tells him that he was out for a little over an hour and a half. He deduces, after several minutes of confused, half-asleep math, that that means the other three should be getting home in less than an hour. Nice. He bets Taemin will be glad to be out of the car.

He wiggles into his usual sitting position in bed, gingerly arranging his pillows behind him to be easy on his back. Pulling both his laptop and his banana over, he sleepily browses his websites and catches up on everything he’d missed over the passed couple of days. Videos, articles, a mountain of tweets… he sighs contentedly as he gets rid of all of his notifications. It feels good to be clear again.

He’s just thinking that maybe it’ll be a good idea to put his heating pad back on on low when his phone vibrates on the desk. He reaches over absentmindedly to check; probably just Jonghyun asking if he wants anything special for lunch--or, no, it’s an unknown number. He sighs again, this time with annoyance because he’s been getting spam texts all month. He knew he shouldn’t have signed that one petition online. He scans it quickly to make sure.

And then he almost drops it when he reads that it’s Taemin.

“Holy shit,” he whispers, a smile breaking out onto his face as he reads the message: “hey hey jinki its taemin!!! got a new phone already :))))) tell jonghyun my number pls??” There’s a little dancing lady emoji after it all and Jinki can’t help the laugh that slips from his lips. He’s so cute, all excited and shit. And he can’t believe that Key and Choi got him all signed up and ready that quickly. Those two are way too efficient. He gets out of bed quickly, but carefully, sending his own reply back to ask what kind of phone it is and ask him how he’s doing.

Jonghyun is in the kitchen when Jinki shuffles down there, watching a mug of milk rotate in the microwave. He has the hot white chocolate mix out on the counter and a spoon ready in his hand. Jinki nods. Good plan.

“Hey,” he says when he gets close enough, poking Jonghyun gently and holding up his phone. “Taemin got his new phone,” he grins. Jonghyun gasps loudly.

“He got--fuck--” Jonghyun ducks quickly to grab the spoon he dropped before looking at Jinki with wide eyes. “Already?” He reaches out and snatches Jinki’s phone from him to squint at the little numbers. “Oh my god,” he breathes. He scuttles quickly to his bed to dive into the covers and pull out his own phone. “And he texted _you_ first?” he asks as he comes skidding back into the kitchen. He looks excited and distressed and overjoyed and concerned all at the same time. “Why you?” he whines, quickly tapping Taemin’s number into his phone. “Why not me, I don’t.” He breaks off into a longer whiny noise and a pout on his cute lips. Jinki pats his soft head. He’s sure that Taemin had his reasons.

Jonghyun types out a shaky message where Jinki can read the words “my love” at least four times, hits send, and just sits there, phone clenched in both hands, feet tapping restlessly against the tile. He’s sure it feels like an eternity to Jonghyun, but Taemin’s reply comes in less than a minute. Jonghyun almost shrieks when the notification pops up and Jinki has to muffle a snort when he drops his phone. This is all so reminiscent of the Choi departure. Jonghyun is so predictable.

It’s not even two seconds of Jonghyun reading the message before he sucks in another sharp breath and drops the phone. This one, though, is different. This gasp is short, annoyed; the phone leaves his hands in an aggressive huff.

“Oh my _fucking_ god,” Jonghyun hisses, and stands up straight to go pace a lap around the living room. “Oh my fucking god.” Jinki blinks at him, bewildered. What the fuck did Taemin send to him. “I do not fucking believe it,” Jonghyun mutters. Neither does Jinki; he reaches forward and picks up Jonghyun’s phone to look for himself.

When he reads it, he takes his own deep sigh of a breath, puts it down, and just leaves to go lie down in bed, leaving the text lit up on the table behind him.

**From: Taemim!!!@!!@!!!!  
2:43pm**  
new phone who dis ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


End file.
